My Rat Tail: 'If only this hair could talk'

For the past 6 months, I have been growing out a small patch of hair on the left side of my head.  From henceforth, I will call it rat tail.  The longer it gets, the more it actually does resemble the tail of a rat.  I cut the rest of my hair, but it keeps on growing, and the distinction becomes more pronounced.  Rat tail has both been braided in neat lines and turned into a dreadlock.  Rat tail dresses as it pleases, wearing thread and dental floss, wrapping around coins and beads.  It can be capricious, curling into my ear or sticking sideways straight out.  It loves attention -- people comment on it almost every day.

'Why?',they ask.  My answer to this pointless question is "its my souvenir from Spain.  My rat tail has accompanied me through adventures and trials, it has the sand and dirt of Spanish beaches and mountains.  I regard it more as an entity outside of myself, something that I've had the ability to grow and grow with."

But this is mostly a bullshit answer.  Anything can be sentimental as such -- shoes, underwear, unwashed sheets, bellybutton lint, etc.    So I guess the real reason is; I don't know.  Rat tail latched on one day and now it is pretty long and maybe a couple of months from now it will be longer.  It is just there, endearing and comforting, always ready to be twirled and played with.  I like the location, weighing my head down with a slight lilt, inspiring thinking and beard stroking.  In a similar hair-vein, I'll close this with a poem that I wrote 2 years ago about my beard:

Ode to a beard

When my beard grows

It is creeping tendrils of

My icy Scandinavian generations,

Grabbing onto something; showing

They still exist, there to help and

Protect, and warm the face in

Times of bitter cold;

Yes, I like you beard, you

Remind me of a time when

Proud Viking warriors could

Strut at the helm of their

Ship, head jutted out, salty ocean

Caught on the face, and

Crack a smile of yellow teeth

Through the matted hair

Dripping into their mouth.

So, beard, stay a little longer;

I am willing to sacrifice a

Few pieces of stale food

And the occasional ingrown hair

For you.