Papa and Ira

Papa and Ira, a photo by tiff85 on Flickr.

The gray hairs on my head appeared subtly at first. A novelty. Now, even from a distance, I can see them in the mirror.  They appear as a cooler tone of brown from the bottom up. And when one gets closer and sees where I have bobby-pinned some back it’s easy to see, that if un-dyed, in another year my hair will be three inches or so silver. I noticed that same attitude to gray hair as the female pubescent attitude of awaiting menstruation.  When the first gray ones came in I sort of admired them. Was fascinated with them, interested in how the texture was more wiry instead of pin straight as the rest. Now with their increasing numbers I am still intrigued but it’s tempered with mortality and how that does dampen some things, or at least alter the context.