I Killed the Combmaker – Unlocking Natural African Coils
by Sabrina Dawkins
In a dream,
I killed the combmaker,
stabbed her with two plastic combs.
I thought I needed it,
sore scalp and headaches
from insensitive comb teeth
biting through resistant coils.
“We don’t want to be combed,”
they cried.
But I didn’t listen
till combmaker died.
The Black Power revolutionary
showed me a better way:
coils like to be coiled,
so two-strand twists
instead of tangled braids.
The braid locks the coils
in an unnatural position.
But two-strand twists coil the coils;
thus, it’s the path of least resistance.
So now I coil my coils
to preserve the natural texture
in big two-strand twists
that do not lock or tangle.
I untwist to style or wash;
then I have big coils instead of little.
And African black soap
and shea tree butter
for my natural African coils.
Natural raw eggs
as a rinse-out conditioner.
God provided natural local products
to nourish black hair
and five fingers to run through it
gently and with care.
So no hard, dead teeth
to cut through tight coils,
just five fingers to embrace them
in the direction they want to roll.