by Carmen Leone

Panache.

(From the Italian, meaning “a bunch of feathers.”)

It sounds a lot like pizzazz,
(origin unknown),
meaning flamboyance, or zest, or flair.
This last rhymes with hair.

So panache could also mean, let us say,
“something to do with hair,”

I know for a fact
that you go to a place by that name
(that has nothing to do with feathers)
when you can’t do a thing with your hair.
After each visit you return from there
full of flamboyance and zest and flair,

I love you as you are,
so I don’t know why you go there.
But if it fills you with flamboyance
and zest and a certain flair,
I suppose it is worth the trouble you take
to have something done with your hair.

Previous: “Vermillion”

Back to Contents

Next: “Saturday Nights”

Carmen J. Leone taught English at Cardinal Mooney, Struthers High, Edinboro University of PA and more recently at YSU until his retirement in 2008. He’s the author of Rose Street: A Family Story and Rose Street Revisited. He’s the father of many, the grandfather of even more. Carmen spends much of his retirement time writing, cartooning, and playing in a country band with a couple of his boys and some friends.