Kindergarten Haircut

by Andrea Potos

After her first seven hours away,
my daughter jumps
into the plastic pony seat,
her eyes on the video screen
set up for squirming children.
I tell the stylist just three inches please,
simple enough to remove the shredded ends
of summer, chlorinated frays from our
long, drowsing hours at the pool.
The woman snips and snips.
My daughter sees Sleeping Beauty, not
those loose coils, six inches or longer
stricken on the linoleum floor
as if they were my own, the end
of our daily chore —
twining the separate
strands into ponytails, braids —
luxurious time
of she and I together,
I want to cry Stop while change
is falling all around us.




Andrea Potos is the mother of 10-year-old Lexi, who has been a great inspiration for much poetry through the years. Her full-length collection of poems Yaya’s Cloth was published by Iris Press. Her poems appear widely in journals and anthologies, including Women’s Review of Books, Atlanta Review, CALYX Journal, Southern Poetry Review, Literary Mama, Claiming the Spirit Within (Beacon Press) and Mothers and Daughters: A Poetry Celebration (Random House).