Laying the Waves
- Laying the Waves
—a photograph by George Butler
It is almost dark, so dark that two bare bulbs glow like searchlights on either side of the room—a basement of masonry brick, pipes and wires hemming the roof, a wattle above the tall one’s head, him bending into his work, his afro grazing the ceiling. The other, sitting in an old barber chair, tilts his head and closes his eyes to it—barely a tingle now—the lye combed through to his roots. He’ll open his eyes, once, his head burning. He will ask for water. When he opens them again, his eyes will blink into focus. With a mirror, he’ll look for himself in strange light, feel change—the stinging newness. Yeah, he’ll nod. Yeah.
Selected works by Natasha Trethewey:
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• Accounting
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• Beginning
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• Calling His Children Home
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• Closing Time
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• Deedywops
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• Delta Sharecroppers, 1930
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• Expectant
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• History Lesson
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• Hot Comb
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• The House Down the Street
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• Saturday Drive
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• Secular
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• The Four Corners
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• Laying the Waves
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• An Interview with Natasha Trethewey
Natasha Trethewey, a member of the Dark Room Collective, is studying for the Ph.D. in English at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), where she received the M.F.A. in creative writing in 1995. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The Massachusetts Review, Seattle Review, Agni, The Southern Review, African American Review, The Gettysburg Review, and Callaloo.
