Leslie as Leslie with a Pixie Cut
by Leslie Sittner
She is Franco-American. Exotic.
I, plain old American.
She is a gamine, a waif, a sylph.
I, sturdy, full, solid.
She learns ballet and to sing.
I, tap dance and sing in church.
She is a film actress and dancer.
I, a kid in middle school.
Her mother prepares her for performing.
Mine, for me to have Caron’s pixie haircut.
Her pixie cut is perfect. Her shaggy bangs smooth and flat.
Mine, cowlicks and curls.
She continues to be in the public eye, appearing with various hairstyles.
I, continue. Delighted to have once tried one of hers.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: The photo at right is me in junior high school with that darn pixie cut. That’s what it was called at the time. My mother adored Leslie Caron (pictured at left in the early 1960s) and was obsessed with that haircut. Since I had the cowlicks in my bangs, she would wet them down, straighten them out, clip a band of tissues to my forehead to keep them flat and a make me sleep on my back so I wouldn’t disturb the corrective set-up. I adored my mother so I really didn’t mind. The system kept the cowlicks at bay but, alas, could not correct the sideways curling.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Leslie Sittner, born in 1945 in upstate New York, is a new Creative nonfiction writer just finding her voice. While Leslie Caron published her autobiography, Thank Heaven, in 2010, Leslie S. is still working on remembering things. And oddly enough, their current hairstyles are often quite similar.
Silver Birch Press 
Great poem! Nice work Leslie.
Thanks again, Sophia!
My mother tried a pixie cut with me too…I cried for days. Great images. (K)
The good part is, hair grows out…
Yes it does! Although at the time it seemed to take forever…
I am not a back sleeper. I don’t know how you managed it. I think the haircut looks great on you, too.
I still sleep on my back but the roar of my snoring wakes the grandkids. Hard to change. They’ll have to learn to deal. Thanks aouut the haircut but that was then and now, well, i do what can with what’s left!