Rough and the smooth
What the internet thinks I’m interested in
are easy methods to remove extra
hair from my limbs and other places.
They won’t work:
rogue hair management is a woman’s penance
to be paid unless she can stand hirsute and proud –
I’m a feminist, stroke my pelt.
This is certainly what I’d like to do,
but the belief is not quite as strong as the shame
of being alone in the summer heat with rewilded pits
and the gaze of a stranger.
It’s not a spinach-on-teeth, Andrex-on-shoe, slatternly grooming shame…
but the more curdling shame
of someone who shaves to conform.
Photo by Mary Hammel on Unsplash
