Kes: An Art Exploration

Kes(ki): Resilience

Long, black waves

Flow down and down and down.

Waves part with the teeth of a comb,

But come together again

Like the diasporic separation of my own

Identity

I watch the black and brown

Fall to the ground

Like leaves fall from their

Branches, from their

Roots, calling it quits before the

Winter and the world freeze over

Feeling the strength within each hair

The collective strength of my hair

My kes

Rolling it together, folding it inwards

Making it stronger and more resistant

To the questions we will face

The challenges we will overcome

My roots

My hair wrapped up

Lovingly

In layers of fabric

Each a representative for the sacrifices made

For me

For you

For Sikhs

The mirror shows a friend

And a stranger

Someone unknown to you

Perhaps one you should fear

The dastaar I see as fabric of my identity

You have been taught to fear as a turban of resistance

A symbol of terror

A sign of pain

My keski has made you fear me

Knock me down and keep me down

Denying my lineage

And yet, I still rise