Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Wide Brimmed Hat

I like a wide brimmed hat;
as if I could keep myself secret from the sun--
as if I could remain only a rumor to the rain.

I might wear it when I meet you beneath the clock in front of Filipe's.
Facing away, I will pretend interest in a passing autobus.

If I wear my wide brimmed hat and my big sunglasses,
then there will be fresh sheets on the bed tonight.
If I wear no hat, and keep my glasses up on my hair,
then I have found a stern gray god
and will soon be gone, to a mission in the hills.

This latter seems unlikely,
as fond as I am of my wide brimmed hat--
as vital to my style
as the ears that crown a cat.

Let the bus go by--
let me shyly dip my head as I turn,
so that my wide brimmed hat will hide the look in my eyes.
Hussy I am, 
and hussy I'll die,
but let's pretend just for now.

In my rented nest, you can cast yourself 
as the Seeker after Truth--
take my glasses lightly with your fingertips,
as the waiters do their trays when they pass the booths
at Felipe's. Give the lie to my girly lace--
remove it as if it were a stubborn student, and the Mistress--you.

A different fate for my wide brimmed hat, though,
I must beg. In exchange for my kisses bartered,
let it hang upon the post at the foot of my bed,
at a pleasing angle,
light blue ribbon cascading weightlessly down

like a lover's moon
after midnight above the Seine.
_________

for my Fireblossom Friday challenge at Real Toads: "The clothes make the woman"

21 comments:

  1. You can keep your hat on, eh? There is both bawdy and bemused here, hussy and heirophant escaping from the deck of footloose fools, cups, swords and Empresses(not to mention schoolmarms) with which we lay out our Tarots.

    A girl should never give up, I say, especially when the alternative is a cold grey god. As always, Shay, your characters live and breathe, exuding a fragrant complexity which both delights and educates the sojourning wayfarer in love's little acre.

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  2. as vital to my style
    as the ears that crown a cat...

    I have never been one to wear a hat, but your opening stanza may make me rethink my aversion to this article of clothing :-)

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  3. Oh my, I am hearing Tom Jones sing "You Can Leave Your Hat On". My my...you can certainly turn wearing or not wearing a hat into quite a sensual experience. :)

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  4. fuck! good thing i didn't read your poem before i wrote mine. too many wonderful phrases to quote...

    just go the fuck back to work already! k? {sniffle} {sob}

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  5. Your opening trifecta of lines transfixed me!

    My wide brimmed hat is a woven Hawaii Life-guard/plantation lady number that keep me hidden from the sun, a rumor to the rain....


    So you coming out here?



    ALOHA from Honolulu
    Comfort Spiral
    > < } } ( ° >

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  6. I agree with myheartslovesongs.

    Go back to work. Tomorrow.

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  7. What a hat! I loved every word of this.

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  8. Shay, please quit your job so you can write poetry full-time. I will support you, because I love reading poetry like this.It lifts and inspires, and shows that no matter how life grinds away at a person who spends most of her time working extremely hard doing physical labor in a grueling hostile work environment nine people out of ten would be unable to tolerate, she still can find the spirit and generosity to give back so much beauty to the world in a way absolutely no one can duplicate. Whether you work or are blessedly free to write more often, your poetry is a gift to all of us.

    Disclaimer:I lied about supporting you,so maybe just wait for retirement, but the rest is totally true.

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  9. Gotta say I'm dazzled by your closing imagery and the likening to the moon...*sigh* well written, Shay! :)

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  10. This is the best poem about a hat ever.....better than Bobbie Burns' To a Louse.......and oh those two closing lines. Sigh. You are such a romantic. I am too, so I love your poems.

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  11. The wide brimmed hat reminds me of the mother bird protecting her fledglings under her wings...... the closing lines are superb.....
    and thanks for the wonderful comment @ my blog Shay..

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  12. Secret from the sun and Rumor to the rain... wow, Shay. The wide-brimmed hat (espec with sunglasses, the bigger the better) always has a come-hither quality. I loved "Hussy I am, and hussy I will die..." because you know, we ARE sisters when all is said and done! Brill. Thanks for the FIRST prompt I answered since before Christmas, laid up with the flu, etc. Amy

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  13. I tried on a hat at Macy's just this week, but its brim was not wide enough and I did not buy, even if it was 20% off!
    Love this poem, especially the first half, and the storytelling is, as ever, simply mind-boggling!

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  14. I love a good hat that can tip and tease and make me feel tall and do as I please...
    Okay-it is the meds...sinus pain be damned!

    I love your poem and your ending is swoon worthy!

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  15. hat's entertainment, hat's entertainment (musical notes). :)

    Mon dieu! Le chapeau, c'est incroyable. Bien!

    Guess it's appropriate that I ate a croissant this morning. ~

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  16. That third stanza just blows me away!

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  17. keep your hat on; that's a really smashing write


    much love...

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  18. Like you, I like a wide-brimmed hat. You have provided lots more reasons for the affinity. A poem worth reading, Shay, as is always the case with your work.

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  19. "I like a wide brimmed hat;
    as if I could keep myself secret from the sun--
    as if I could remain only a rumor to the rain"

    This sets us up for the essential contradiction-- that only you could pull off with such verve.
    What is viewed by most as protective gear becomes as expressive as a cats ears.
    I love what you have done with a wide brimmed hat—how it becomes a semaphore for your whims, a barometer of your internal climate. Who else could endow a wide brimmed hat with such a husky erotic voice?

    Thank you so much for the frisky prompt--it helped to loosen the gray hold of Minnesota winter.

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  20. You are the queen of sensual poetry so that even a hat becomes the signal leading to love. This is fabulous.

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  21. ... and I will know thee by thy wide brimmed hat ... in a color matching thine eyes, perhaps?

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?