“Dark Chocolate” Interpretation by Tracy Tabery-Weller (See the full video below or on Instagram @bookofshepoems)
If you were to ask me why I think the public mask mandate is a good idea I would tell you, without any hesitation, Because no one can see the stray hairs on my chin.
Isn’t it funny that while so many men are desperately trying to put hair back on their heads with plugs and pills and toupees and combovers that women are desperately trying to take hair off with razors, lasers, wax, and tweezers?
It’s weird, but there it is.
My grandmother tweezed her eyebrows so heavily that they never grew back and she eventually had to draw them on. My mom, being a 70s gal, cherished her bushy brows and even fluffed them. But she was obsessed with her leg hair and shaved it off daily lest the cat get impaled.
I’m somewhere in between. Envious of those women who have overcome the social pressure to shave and tweeze, but not ready to let it go. I have, after all, been shaving my legs and armpits since I was 13. I have no idea why. It’s just the cultural information I was fed. Women shave, I was told. The End.
When the Mister and I bike overseas or backpack or van travel and camp in the wilderness my necessities include dark chocolate (no explanation needed) and a razor. I know it’s time to use the razor when my pits get itchy and I start petting my legs like a dog.
If I had to admit to a hair obsession it would be my chin hairs. When a mirror presents itself on our various escapades I tend to look closely, gasp in horror, and begin the plucking. The Mister, on the other hand, tends to wonder where all of his hair has disappeared to. It’s on your back, I say, and he rolls his eyes and puts on a hat.
So I have too much hair in the “wrong” places, while he doesn’t have quite enough in the “right” places. But when you put the two of us together it’s a Goldilocks moment — we’re juuuuuust right.
For now dark chocolate is doing my mood a favor and public masking is doing my chin hair obsession a favor. I’m also spending a lot less on lipstick. But I like lipstick so I’m looking forward to the day when I can, once again, show my naked chin and painted lips to the world.
You better bet that they’ll both be glowing. And probably smeared with chocolate.
A post shared by Michelle Meyer (@bookofshepoems) on Aug 22, 2020 at 6:01am PDT