TRACK #2 on the “Want Some Scratch?” Spoken Word CD
by Andrea Grant featuring vocals by GREEN TaRA
I traveled to Egypt & the goddess Isis kissed my forehead. After that, people started staring at me like they knew how much I hated it, their blank faces not registering WHY. I began to lose my mind…
They stared at me in the coffee shop with the blue awning. They watched me select produce at the market. They stared on the sidewalk streets, at the Laundromat during the rinse cycle, in the bank line-up, at the hair salon, while stopped at a red light. At the record store, as I walked, shopped, talked, waited. Like they had never seen a woman WAIT before!
I cut my hair off to dissuade them, they only stared harder. I grew my hair to form a thick curtain, like Cousin It. They peered through the strands. I walked in stilts to be above staring range, but they only looked up while driving and caused so many accidents I felt guilty. I painted dark circles under my eyes to make myself intimidating, but it only made them feel like they could talk to me. I checked myself into a zoo, just to see if the obviousness of it would make them stop. It got worse. I was the beautiful freak in a cage. Americans came over the border to catch a look. People planned their family vacations around it, the kids, the in-laws, the grandparents, the crazy aunts.
Capitalizing, Mattel created ‘Barbie in a cage’ just for me. Children started to bring the doll to school for show and tell, dressing her up and creating scenarios. The Dream House, the Camper Van, the pink Mustang. Everything went CRAZY.
I started walking backwards. I dreamed about pyramids, the eye of Ra. I looked straight at the sun without going blind & grew a second layer on my cornea. When I came back to earth, the spell had changed. I could see past the skin and into the heart, reading the minds of the onlookers. I developed compassion. I couldn’t stop staring at them…