Braid
Brandi Bird is a Saulteaux and Cree poet from Treaty 1 territory currently living and learning on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land. Their work has been published in Poetry Is Dead, Pearls, and Prism International. Their debut chapbook I Am Still Too Much was published in 2019 with Rahila’s Ghost Press.
My grandma never had her hair cut
by nuns or Indian agents—
she chooses a tight perm now, bald
spots from where she tugs on it
when she’s drunk, pulling memories
from her head. As a child she cleaned
houses for whites off-reserve, permitted
once a day to go to Selkirk, East Selkirk,
places she would live when she grew
up. Her hair was long back then, like mine
now, black, straight as prairie
highway. It’s red today. She covers
the greys with Vidal Sassoon boxed dye,
slowly rusting under the shower cap
as I roll cigarettes for her at the kitchen
table. I love when she touches
my hair, compares
our faces. I look nothing like her.
Brandi Bird is a Saulteaux and Cree poet from Treaty 1 territory currently living and learning on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh land. Their work has been published in Poetry Is Dead, Pearls, and Prism International. Their debut chapbook I Am Still Too Much was published in 2019 with Rahila’s Ghost Press.