Holding

Evening comes
and it is the only promise
the day has kept.

Nobody knows about the wig
and she doesn't took at herself
taking it off. Then she feels
for her own stubby braids, unbraids
them, liking the coarseness
like a working man's hand. It's been so long
simulation will do just fine, thank you.
But not liking it enough.
The wig is smooth.

She braids them again, obeying
a tradition in Ghana, in Guinea
in a D.C. home business so skilled in
managing three worlds of hair, blending
them into one unit of braid without
juggling or favoring, the skill is questioned
by those who cannot braid, who spend
a hundred hours learning to shampoo
and untangle for their licenses: and thousands
of women are queens for days and--days
when they leave, for the braids last and last.

She tucks the stubby braids under a tight-
fitting crown, a stocking cap. Then
she talks to God, getting down on her knees
as if the room is full of smoke.

Her face shines with night cream, pinkish,
mother-of-pearlish; this nacreous effect
is almost precious; it comes off in the morning.

God talks to her. She hears every word
he says even those without words. The God
she pictures is white headed, his eyes are oceans,
his muscles are trees; his knuckles, mountain
ranges; there are escarpments where the cuticles
drop down to nails, valleys between his toes
and that is how he holds the whole world.

She sleeps well. She holds her dreams well
although she is sleep, her grip does not weaken.

She wakes ready, really all gaga with faith
and all God does is hold, hold,
put her on hold.

Thylias Moss, an associate professor of English at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), is author of numerous volumes of poems: Last Chance for the Tarzan Holler, Hosiery Seams on Bowlegged Woman, Pyramid of Bones, At Redbones, Rainbow Remnants in Rock Bottom Ghetto Sky and Small Congregations. Her memoir, Tale of a Sky-Blue Dress, appeared in 1999. She has received numerous awards and fellowships for her poetry--most recently the Whiting Writer's Award, the Witter Bynner Prize, and the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

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