From Tongari — Summary

the first time I remember you, you're blonde and don't love me back. I wish it stayed that way. but soon You're brunette and You do. It's the sweetest thing I've ever tasted. Your brown hair was like hot chocolate in autumn, wool gloves in the snow, a candy store in February. it never occurred to me that candy rots, gloves get soaked, and chocolate residue pools at the bottom of mugs like tea leaves.

then, You're a red head with fading freckles and a consuming love. i stay because i feel responsible. maybe loving me is just as addicting as loving You. i stay because that burning is intense, yes, but it reminds me of past candlelit dinners. warmth and heat are one and the same, aren't they? of course, You reply, and hand me another glass of wine as dark and red as You. We spend that lifetime drunk.

when i knew You again, Your hair was stained black every Sunday. i offered to help get the roots once. You screamed and locked Yourself in the bathroom. i paced through the night as Your tears kept me awake, chiseling at my heart. in the morning, i held You close to my chest and apologized the way You taught me to. You smiled with all Your teeth on display, well rested and happy.

the next time we never met. Our bus crashed two blocks before me and squashed you like a bug. it's sickening the hold You still have while decaying in the dirt beneath my feet, yet i still find myself dyeing. black like my ashes when You burned me, red like the stains on our carpet, brown like the mud pies we made, and blonde.

blonde like the sunshine that kissed my skin as I moved on oh so easily. that color didn't last very long, though; the sight of it was sickening.

reborn, we met for the sixth first time with our hair buzzed short.

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The speaker traces a love that returns again and again across what seem to be different lives, with the beloved's hair color changing each time. At first the love is one-sided, then sweet, then consuming. The speaker stays in a relationship that burns, calling it warmth, and learns to apologize for things that may not be their fault. The beloved's moods swing sharply, from screaming behind a locked door to smiling, well rested, while the speaker stays up all night. The poem suggests an unhealthy, controlling bond.

Even after death, the beloved keeps a grip. The speaker dyes their own hair in all the old colors, as if carrying the person around. Then comes blonde, a moment of freedom that feels easy but sickening, perhaps because the speaker can't quite trust it. The last line, with both people reborn and hair buzzed short, feels like a clean slate, though "the sixth first time" hints at a pattern that keeps repeating. The mood is bittersweet, uneasy, and darkly tender.

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