This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 14, 2011 - Allison Joseph's poem, "Thirty Lines About the Fro" takes the form of a modern ode, a tribute poem where the subject is usually directly addressed or personified. We don't see many odes these days, but this one is black and brazen and anything but romanticized.
Thirty Lines About The Fro
The fro is homage, shrubbery, and revolt--all at once.
The fro and pick have a co-dependent relationship, so
many strands, snags, such snap and sizzle between
the two. The fro wants to sleep on a silk pillowcase,
abhorring the historical atrocity of cotton.
The fro guffaws at relaxers--how could any other style
claim relaxation when the fro has a gangsta lean,
diamond-in-the-back, sun-roof top kinda attitude,
growing slowly from scalp into sky, launching pad
for brilliance and bravery, for ideas uncontained by
barbershops and their maniacal clippers, monotony
of the fade and buzzcut. The fro has much respect
for dreads, but won't go through life that twisted,
that coiled. Still, much love lives between
the two: secret handshakes, funk-bottomed struts.
The fro doesn't hate you because you're beautiful.
Or ugly. Or out-of-work or working for the Man.
Because who knows who the Man is anymore?
Is the president the Man? He used to have a fro
the size of Toledo, but now it's trimmed down
to respectability, more gray sneaking in each day,
and you've got to wonder if he misses his pick,
for he must have had one of those black power ones
with a fist on the end. After all, the fro is a fist,
all curled power, rebellious shake, impervious
and improper. Water does not scare the fro,
because water cannot change that which is
immutable--that soul-sonic force, that sly
stone-tastic, natural mystic, roots-and-rhythm
crown for the ages, blessed by God and gratitude.
Allison Joseph is the author of six full-length collections of poetry, most recently "My Father's Kites" (Steel Toe Books, 2010). She is an associate professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, where she serves as editor for Crab Orchard Review. "Thirty Lines About the Fro" originally appeared in the 36th anniversary issue of River Styx. The other poem of Allison's featured in that issue, "Notebooks," also a kind of ode, was recently selected to appear in the next edition of Best American Poetry.
Richard Newman, River Styx editor for 15 years, is the author of two full-length poetry collections, "Borrowed Towns" and "Domestic Fugues." He also co-directs the River Styx at Duff's reading series.