Once upon a time<\/p>\n
I curled my hair<\/p>\n
Curling iron in hand<\/p>\n
Curlers pressing against my head<\/p>\n
Anything to make the straight go away<\/p>\n
Soon I embraced my straightness<\/p>\n
I allowed it to be flat and lifeless<\/p>\n
I let it grow long<\/p>\n
Past the point where it got stuck in car doors<\/p>\n
Past the point where I would sit on it and pull my head<\/p>\n
I cut it to shoulder length<\/p>\n
Then to above my ears<\/p>\n
I pinned it, put it in pony tails<\/p>\n
Pig tails, braids<\/p>\n
Short, long and everything in-between<\/p>\n
Until one day<\/p>\n
15 days from my first chemo<\/p>\n
I found it in clumps<\/p>\n
It was shaved that day, then shaved again<\/p>\n
I saw my head<\/p>\n
I saw the bumps and the scars<\/p>\n
I found out I am more than my hair<\/p>\n
More than some preconception<\/p>\n
Of how a woman should look<\/p>\n
I was more than balding<\/p>\n
I was more than receding<\/p>\n
I was bald<\/p>\n
Now as it grows back<\/p>\n
Uncontrollable<\/p>\n
I still see how I looked before<\/p>\n
A warrior without hair<\/p>\n
I will never see those strands the same way again<\/p>\n
I will brush and style and love my curls<\/p>\n
No longer afraid<\/p>\n
Of nothing there<\/p>\n
My life a before and after shot<\/p>\n
Before the cancer and survivor<\/p>\n
From flat to bald to curls<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once upon a time I curled my hair Curling iron in hand Curlers pressing against my head Anything to make the straight go away Soon I embraced my straightness I allowed it to be flat and lifeless I let it grow long Past the point…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69355"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69625,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69355\/revisions\/69625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}