Poems from my Merriam-Webster Word of the Day project. For more information, look here.
broadside : directly from the side
the storm hit
me broadside rolled me
heels over
hairdo when
I came to I sure was in
dire need of a comb
shadorma 451 : 9/14/22
tantamount : equivalent in value, significance, or effect
And this plane ticket?
Tantamount to a bribe. So?
I wash this thought down
with a swallow of coffee.
Dye my hair. Lock the door. Go.
tanka 400 : 2/23/23
obdurate : resistant to persuasion or softening influences
Tangled hair.
Intrepid comb yanks.
Obdurate
knot resists.
Score? A snarl of hair clutched tight
in comb’s gap-toothed grin.
shadorma 514 : 3/22/23
Attributions:
“Broadside.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/broadside. Accessed 14 Sep. 2022.
“Tantamount.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tantamount. Accessed 23 Feb. 2023.
“Obdurate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obdurate. Accessed 22 Mar. 2023.
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
I like the decisive tone in each of the poems in this trio. There is recurring theme of grasping the nettle of life when experiencing some kind of aggravation.
To me hair and combing hair and hairdos are associated with aggravation and wasted time or trying to keep something orderly that I wonder how important it is. I think this comes from childhood experiences and my impatience with it. So I think the topic lends itself just to what you said, a certain exasperation.
I just read your reply to Laura. Interesting. I had wondered about the recurring hair theme, though I couldn’t help but think of Clarence Thomas with the opening of tantamount. Of course, he has a hair story in his past, too.
Oh dear!!! I did not mean to send you down that path!
🙂