Poem at the beginning of the world # 1
by D'mani Thomas
find me a beautician
find me a braider, i want
a bob made of ribs like
a spider petrified mid hug
find me someone with complex hands
someone who knows how to weave a story through hair
i want
inches down to my ass…
from eden
eden!? the one on 98th!?
or the one on macarthur
near the women’s college
and graveyard full of people
we don’t speak of
before men, there were
bundles. everything to be
decomposed we wore in braids
story goes,
eve, bald from the rib upward, sat with lilith as she made faux braids out of apple rinds. twisting & twisting &
then came adam, allergic to beautiful things — disgusted & uncultured called this
strange. contrary to popular belief, strange fruit might have originated from
the mouth of uh balding man in a beauty salon.
lilith, too busy telling stories through scalp said
men are only as special
as the beautician says &
i see nothing for you here
even the snakes are embarrassed
leave my garden…
before adam disappeared from the planet, he invented a word that eve loved
in fact, she used it as the the moral of this story:
bitches can’t be
bad bitches in peace
find me a braider, i want
a bob made of ribs like
a spider petrified mid hug
find me someone with complex hands
someone who knows how to weave a story through hair
i want
inches down to my ass…
from eden
eden!? the one on 98th!?
or the one on macarthur
near the women’s college
and graveyard full of people
we don’t speak of
before men, there were
bundles. everything to be
decomposed we wore in braids
story goes,
eve, bald from the rib upward, sat with lilith as she made faux braids out of apple rinds. twisting & twisting &
then came adam, allergic to beautiful things — disgusted & uncultured called this
strange. contrary to popular belief, strange fruit might have originated from
the mouth of uh balding man in a beauty salon.
lilith, too busy telling stories through scalp said
men are only as special
as the beautician says &
i see nothing for you here
even the snakes are embarrassed
leave my garden…
before adam disappeared from the planet, he invented a word that eve loved
in fact, she used it as the the moral of this story:
bitches can’t be
bad bitches in peace
D'mani Thomas (he \ they) is a writer, and creative from Oakland, California (Ohlone territory). Their work currently explores surveillance, intimacy, and the insidious ways Black queers have been impacted by both. D’mani has received fellowships from UC Berkeley’s Art & Research Center via The Engaging the Senses Foundation, The Watering Hole, The Outpost Foundation, Foglifter, and others. In 2023, they became a finalist for the Penrose Poetry Prize, and were awarded a California Arts Council grant through Youth Speaks. His work can be found in The Shade Journal, Oroboro Lit Journal, KALW 91.7 FM, The Auburn Avenue, The Ana, and elsewhere. His debut chapbook, “Grown-up Elementary”, is now available through Black Lawrence Press. Outside of poetry, catch them studying horror movies, dancing, and eating too many fries.