emily joy oomen

for frida’s eyebrows

Before there was rock & roll, there were Frida Kahlo’s eyebrows.

Every morning
Frida stirred her eyebrow pencil in her coffee
Then filled in her brows
Making coffee forever nervous

While men painted Birth of Venuses
She painted her eyebrows
That had the confidence of a firecracker
That bit the hand
That were as Diego said
Like the wings of a blackbird

She was a bouquet of unapology
That refused to be plucked away
Never anyone’s muse except her own

She struck a match against
Societal beauty norms and
Made a flame
That never extinguished

So when the eyebrow person
At the beauty counter
Asks me what kind of eyebrows I want
I’ll say Frida’s

EMILY JOY OOMEN IS A WRITER FROM THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. HER WORK HAS BEEN FEATURED IN BBC, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, THE ATHENS INTERNATIONAL VIDEO POETRY FESTIVAL, VICE, BUZZFEED, AND MANY OTHER PUBLICATIONS. SHE HAS A B.A. IN ENGLISH FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON AND HELPS CURATE VIDEOS FOR BUTTON POETRY. YOU CAN FIND HER ON INSTAGRAM @POETIC_ESPRESSO