We love poetry…Kinky by Bill Holmes

Kinky

(a poem inspired by Uva Coles)

 

There’s something real

kinky about her

I mean real kinky

about the way she holds

her head to the sky

smiling from ear to ear

walking down the street

marching to the rhythm

of her own unique beat

sunlight augmenting the curls

in her teeny weeny afro

embracing her newfound freedom

from relaxed ends that once told lyes

that met their demise during her big chop

heads are turning,

eyes are staring,

mouths are gawking

wherever she goes

but she doesn’t care

or give a damn what anybody thinks

because she knows

who she is

and she’s so

amazing / confident / fierce /

gorgeous / real / sexy / unapologetic

because there’s something real

kinky about her

I mean real kinky

that turns a brotha on

and makes him want to

comb his fingers through

a sista’s natural roots

so he can find out what

heaven on earth feels like

but he knows better than

to disrespect her crowning glory

expressing its African hairstory

locked away inside her soul

that nobody can understand

who she is

because that’s the way

her mama taught her

from the resilient way

she rocks her braids,

cornrows, plaits, and twists

like changing seasons

because versatility

is hers to command

and there’s something real

kinky about her

real kinky about her

I mean damn right kinky

funky / jazzy / nasty

like a summertime

slick bass groove

it’s in the way she

bops her head

bounces her shoulders

and sways her hips

she’s putting the world on notice

a sista don’t play

and she’s a force

a force to be

reckoned with…

Mmm-hmmm…

 

 

by Bill Holmes

 

 

Bill Holmes is the author of the full-length poetry book Straight From My Heart, the spoken word CD The Air I Breathe, and the ESSENCE bestselling fiction novel One Love. As a poet, Bill has opened for artists such as The Last Poets and award-winning jazz musician Roy Ayers. Bill’s work has been published and featured in 50BOLD, African Voices, ESSENCE and the anthologies Journey Into My Brother’s Soul, Erogenous Zone: A Sexual Voyage and Step Up To The Mic: A Poetic Explosion. Bill is the founder of the creative-writing course Write Here! Write Now! which he taught for five years at Temple University in Philadelphia through the grassroots, non-profit organization PASCEP. He is currently working on his memoir In the End and the independent, short-film The Program.