If you want to share a literal image of the actual word, do that. But if you’d rather play with word association, post something that reminds you of the specific word, or something you use the word for, do so. It only has to make sense to you. Have fun and keep on photographing!
This week’s word is Escape!
To quote one of my parents favorite sayings, “What is Done in the Dark shall come to the Light.”
Mark 4:22
New King James Version (NKJV)
22 For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.
When I was younger my hair was Lush, Full, Thick and so Dense that if my Mom used a regular comb the teeth in the comb would break. In the 1970s my hair was proudly Afrocentric. Watu Wasuri Use Afro Sheen. Some of you may remember that commercial. Of course like most Black Women I’ve worn my hair in many other styles including straightened using both the straightening comb and chemical process, the 1980s Jheri Curl, Locs, box braids, cornrows, Bantu knots, etc… When I had my Locs they reached all the way down my back to my butt. Loved it but after a while this hairstyle proved to be high maintenance so back I went to the Afro.
However since Menopause I’ve experienced certain unwanted changes in my hair. It is still fairly thick but not as dense and the texture has become more wiry with a change in the curl pattern. It is also more wild than when I was younger as though the hair had a life of it’s own. Well maybe it does.
The worst hair change was having my hair literary go gray overnight when I was 52. I Don’t Like Gray Hair and I Do NOT want to own it like some white lady visitor to the museum told me I needed to do. I enjoy coloring my hair Vampire Red and I know and believe I look Great with Red Hair. I get lots of compliments on my hair. This brings me to the below video and yes I’ve had white people both male and female say these things to me at work and attempt to touch my hair.
Let’s get this straight. Never. Ever. Upon the possibility of getting slapped or punched in the face should you touch or attempt to touch a Black person’s Hair. Touching hair is intimate contact which most Black people myself include Do Not Appreciate. STOP!! No Touching! Black People are not petting zoos and I for one HATE to be Touched. If I don’t know you and you don’t know me KEEP Your Distance!! Exclusions are small children, developmentally disabled kids who have come up to me and hugged me. the very elderly and disabled people who need assistance. These groups are okay. As for the rest of you well I can only conclude that you must but some type of pervert or sex predator.
Again: DON’T TOUCH MY HAIR OR ANY PART OF MY PERSON!!
After you watch the videos I’ve included a Slide Show of my hair over the years.
Things Not To Say To Someone With Afro Hair
13 Crazy Things White People Think About Black Hair
But Sometimes the Past Memories come back to haunt you. The borders are permeable. There are holes in the fenced bricked walls. Thoughts within the intricacies of the mind have no fear of protective barbed wire. They weave over and around like ghosts through cemetery gates.
As much as you attempt to put the past behind you it hangs onto your coat-tails and sticks like fly paper. Where you move it goes. Forever your shadow real yet intangible daring you to leave it behind because you both know it, they, the memories, flaws and failures will always be a part of your life like skin to bone. Muscle to fiber and tendon. You can never forget. Swift Rivers carry bodies downstream to surface with the Spring thaw. Sacrifices for the Funeral Pyre.
The Immolation of Brigadier Jaynes
Brigaider Jaynes. He went insane.
Not all at once. But in bits and pieces.
Dying upon tracked grill. For the rats to get there fill.
Leftovers charcoal broiled. Pigeons, Roaches and rats gather for a feast.
He once went for Reyna Angelica. Ms. Lady who did a pole dance with a tracker trailer at the intersection of a State of Insanity. Stopping traffic for miles around.
Bodies stacked like cord-wood.
Behold the Char Man Cometh
His Fiery Frame set to blazing coals.
His disembodied entrails offerings to the Underground rat-tail gods.
Char-Man ~~ A Jumping, Jaggling, Waggling, Corpse doing a Macabre Jig inside the tunnel.
A Sign Shouted Danger/Peligroso! For Gotham is a Bi-Textual Town.
Another of the Mole People succumbs to the savageries of Life.
At Dusk when the warmth of the Sun has ceded to Night’s chill, Char Man comes to me offering to turn my bed into a living breathing fireplace with me as one of the perpetually burning logs. His eye never quits straying from my side. The Eternal Inferno Burning Spectrum infests my dreams like creeping ivy and mold. I am just an observer. If he can’t have Laura will he take me?
And so it begins once more.
Oh Laura! Where have you gone?!
Twin Peaks Dancing Dwarf
Hypnos, Morpheus and Phantasos mock me!! Phobetor, god of nightmares is my Deity.
I’ve suffered from Nightmares, Insomnia, Night Terrors and as an adult Sleep-walking. When I was younger I used to see demons at the foot of my bed and felt some type of demon or evil being sitting on my chest! Thankful that finally went away. However Sleep has rarely been peaceful or restful for me!
The Man from Another Place is Waiting for you!! For at Midnight all Black Cats are Grey and Dying men sometimes transmigrate into lesser animals. For you see I am not from Gentleness but from War. I am the Midnight Marauder a Succubus come to steal men’s souls as they sleep!
We all come to a Crossing/Crossroads in Life where we face the realization of what Life is as opposed to what we would like or want our Lives to be.
Just when you think Okay I’m in a position to improve or when things are about to get better that’s when the Cosmos laughs and you experience a reversal of fortune. Previously I had blogged about my vacation goals for 2017. Well when I came home from work there was the wonderful monthly Con Edison (New York’s electric company) bill waiting for me.
Last month was lucky and the bill was None!! Hooray!! But alas celebrated too soon. When I opened the most recent bill the amount was over $400.00!!! OMG!! How in the world can the bill be that much when my room-mate and I are out working most of the time?!! I know Sylvester is not turning on lights unless my cat develops opposable thumbs when I leave the house!
Then there is the ongoing matter of trying to get Pro Bono Legal services so I can get Guardianship over my brother Stephen. A few weeks ago I saw a Legal referral phone number in the newspaper and called it yesterday trying to find a Guardianship lawyer. So I called the number which resulted in calling other phone numbers with the only result in being told that I must go to Surrogates Court in Queens (cause Queens is the borough Stephen lives) and hire a lawyer. As you all know lawyers cost big bucks so you know that in order to afford a lawyer and pay the electric bill I must put in extra hours of overtime.
Someone had said to me about feeding the soul and feeding the body. Feeding the Soul for me would be taking a vacation up to Saratoga Springs. I could use the change of scenery, rest and relaxation but as you all well know rest and sleep does not pay the rent, utility bills or pay lawyers.
As for vacation I can now easily get the time off since the Evening/Night Shifts are much more flexible. My new bosses are very nice and as long as you have time accrued you get take it. So now I can get days off work but I can’t afford to go anywhere!! Hmmm… What’s wrong with this picture? The money I was gonna put to my trip will now go to Con Edison and the lawyer once I locate one. In fact I will be spending my vacation in Surrogates Court as opposed to being in the nice, peaceful, relaxing atmosphere of upstate New York.
I will allow myself Feb. 27th which is my Birthday to relax and rest for that day then it’s back to the grind. Pisces ~~ The two fishes swimming in opposite directions. Maybe that means I’m caught in an endless revolving circle. Moving but going nowhere. I suppose once again as always I will accept and adjust.
I think that whenever you make plans the Universe plays a Cosmic joke on you. So much for 2017 Vacation Plans! Up in Smoke! Well that’s Life!
Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 