artwork: ralph murre
THE CHARACTER OF HATS
by
Michael L. Newell
A
hat properly aged
releases
the fisherman
cast
inside a steel worker,
the
dancer shimmering
in
an accountant's figures,
the
sailor deep
inside
a coal miner,
the
woodsman wandering
in
a priest.
*****
A
hat aged properly,
stiffness
mellowed into character,
smells
of salt water
brine
pickling skin, rain
streaming
through Douglas Fir, firewood
kindling
friendships, pipes
lit
from embers
warming
conversation, contains
sun,
earth, tree, fire, rain, and moon.
~
first published in Bellowing
Ark
