San Diego Reader

• Wigs are in style.
• There’s a store in every town.
• There’s a kiosk in every mall.
• Golden blond, near crimson,
• silky black, cascading brown.

• They glamorize, maximize,
• voluminize and dramatize.
• Human hair or synthetic?
• Not even a spouse can tell.
• Curly, wavy, arrow straight,
• frizzy, bouffant and Afro.

• Tucked in a corner is a medical wig
• with a soft monofilament crown.
• Today there’s an added promo special,
• a no-sweat liner for chemo patients.
• This model has a lifetime warranty
• and comes in two sizes, adult and child.

Claire Hsu Accomando was born in Geneva, Switzerland, to a French mother and a Chinese father. Her book, Love and Rutabaga, published by St. Martin’s Press, is an engaging memoir of a childhood spent under the shadow of Nazi-occupied France during WWII. A former history and ESL teacher, her recent poetry has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Mudfish, California Quarterly, Perigee, The San Diego Poetry Annual, and the Magee Park Poets Anthology. “Wigs Galore” is published by permission of the author.