Afro, cornrowed

plaited to please

swinging in

the playground

breeze

monkeybars

blacktop

hopscotch

jumping from

one insecurity

to the next:

“difficult

textured

kinky coils”

you wonder why

God made you

nappy?

I ask in turn,

if gravity can’t bring

your hair down,

why should you?

Robyn Chiara Fohouo (she/her/hers) is a student at Columbia University and began writing poetry in the turbulent summer of 2020, taking great comfort in attending virtual poetry workshops hosted and attended by incredibly welcoming writers. She writes to understand and make something of herself. If not for poetry, she knows not where her emotions would lie. Robyn has been published in Brown Sugar Literary Magazine.

Photo: Nappy Stock