Heffa

'Don't let me chase you...
Heffa! '

My mother would say this,
Before she did my sister's hair.
And I would sit in a chair...
To watch my sister.
And she would cry and I would stare.

'What you looking at? '
My sister Mimmie would say!

I'm looking at you!
What you gonna do?

'You kids better not start nothing with me.
Hold your head still, girl!
And don't you say another word, Larry! '

I would think to myself...
'Is Mimmie a 'heffa' when she gets her hair done?
Why when I called her that...
She would chase me,
And I would run?

Then my mother would say,
'Would you kids stop that!
Both of you get on my last nerve.
Stop that fighting crap.'

Ma, what is a 'heffa'?
And why is Mimmie one?
Is it the way she looks...
When her hair is undone?
If I called her that,
She wants to fight with me.
Daddy don't call her a heffa.
Why do you...
Exclusively?

My mother would look at me,
As if I was crazed.
I could tell in her eyes,
She was trying for 'something' to say!

I never heard my mother curse.
She didn't have to back then.
But I grew to understand...
'Heffa' was a word,
Black women shared between them!

And my sister Mimmie...
Thought she needed to keep me in 'check'!
And 'if' I didn't leave her alone...
A grown man I would never become or get!

I grew up in a family of very strong willed 'heffuhs'!

Dedicated to:
Those women in my family whom I love dearly.
And I have learned what they say to each other,
And amongst themselves...
Is between them as women!
And they have provided me with 'much' wisdom!
I know now...
What is said 'endearingly' between them,
Is not for a man to repeat!
Even though they can say what they wish,
About us!

'Right, fellas'?

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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