Reclaiming Lipstick Shades
part of the Women : Power series of poems featuring BHD, marika bianca, Orisirisi, Tamyka Bell, Tre L. Loadholt, Violet Oh Violet and Wild Flower
Ever since she turned sixteen,
She ritually put on lipstick
Every single day,
Just like her mom did and
Her grandma did before her.
She never wore it to attract or please men outright,
Though the names of her favorite shades
Like “Coy,” “Flirty,” and “Demure”
Suggested otherwise.
So, rather than be defined by the names
Printed in tiny lettering at the bottom of the tubes,
She took a Sharpie to them
And, graffiti-style, wrote her new names
In bold letters
Up and down the sides of the tubes.
There was a coral pink she called
“Ambitious,”
A rose hue she named
“Victory,”
And a deep oxblood she called
“Way With Words.”
But, by then, her courageous new titles
Were beginning to get too long
To scratch on little lipstick tubes,
So she scrapped the lipstick altogether
And started writing books instead.
