Thursday, January 14, 2016

Hats (for Mikaela) poem #14





















Ah, Mikaela, I'm a short man
of many hats - Hopalong Cassidy
down the sandy laneways
a six-gun on each hip
after the Saturday matinee -
my Mother would wait
until I was asleep
to take it off.

Later, an army beret
brought home from
NCO camp and dyed
bongo-player black...
Day-o, day-ay-o 
daylight come
and I wanna go home!

Top-hat and silk scarf
dancing on the beach
at dawn, cuddling
a washed-up dolphin ...

Sunhat in the outer
at Test cricket -
same hat as I spread
hay in the garden,
temperature rising.

Ah, all the years
of birthday hats
and Christmas hats
and hair nets for
operating theatres.

A man wears many hats
in just one life time -
this one dies bald headed.

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