1. Linking Texts: Relationships
The Odyssey

2. “My Mother Combs My Hair” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The room is full
of the scent of crushed
hibiscus,
my mother’s breath.
Our positions are of
childhood,
I kneeling on the floor,
she crosslegged
on the chair behind.
She works the comb
through permed strands
rough as dry seaweed.
I can read regret in her
fingers
untangling snarls,
rubbing red jabakusum oil
into the brittle ends.
When she was my age,
her hair reached her knees,
fell in a thick black rush
beyond the edges
of old photographs. In one,
my father has daringly
covered her hand with his
and made her smile.
At their marriage, she told
me,
because of her hair
he did not ask for a dowry.
This afternoon I wait
for the old comments,
how you’ve ruined your
hair,
this plait’s like a lizard’s
tail,
or if you don’t take better
care
of it, you’ll never get
married.
but the braiding is done,
each strand
in its neat place, shining,
The comb put away.
I turn to her, to the gray
snaking in at the temples
the cracks growing
at the edges of her eyes
since father left.
We hold the silence
tight between us
like a live wire,
like a strip of gold
torn from a wedding
brocade. 20 35 5
What kind of relationship does this mother and daughter have?
Can you relate to it? 25 40 10 45 15 30

3. “Only Daughter” by Sandra Cisneros
I think…
I remember…
I wonder…
It’s like…