The Hat Said

Inspired by the hat
the most magic of all
I took it out slowly as if at a Ball
And there I stood gazing in my gardening clothes
And wondered what secrets the old hat would hold

My hands tell a story
They’ve lived and they’ve loved
My eyes even privy to
Angels above

I think what it is I will say to my love
Can ne’er be found in a hand or a glove
But something far deeper than silk and old lace
Ruffles and pinkness and lines on my face


It tells of a life I live backwards you see
Not to find her or flaunt her
But just to be
Me

She bids me walk miles through the fields
of my
Dark
Hair flying softly
On light fields of cotton

And brine

That too
Mixed with sweetness and jade
Oh how solid they flow
Through the life that I made

And true
Should I lay it all out
to be found?
Or should I keep parts of me

Safe and
unwound
In the me
that I love
when I look at the hat

Whoever heard of a girl like that?

Did she lie down in a field of tall grass
And ravish her lover this way and that
Did she hide her true self when the moon called her home

While someone she left
Became silent and stone
How gently she lay on the roughness of him
to sleep in a clover of stars
unaware
Don’t say she lacks wisdom

She no longer cares

And that is the rudeness of life in her bosom
To think that she loved and set free
Of her choosing

It stings at the heart that lies beating
Between
The lace and the reds and the pearls so pristine
On her wall of clocks
Ticking
and laughing at time
she wonders when
roughness again
will be
mine


So she threw back the lace and saw ever so clear
Every line
every mark
every crease
every fear

she touched them
and watered them all
with her tears

together they made a most honorable tale
of places she'd been
and those she'd loved well

the heart knows no difference
no difference
you see
between ashes of prudence
and ashes of me

and ev'n as she traveled the course of her face
in a hat full of wonder
in a room small with grace
she wondered
whose hands would find joy
in the curves
and the lines
of a woman
who smiles like a girl

Will he look at my hats
and my ruffles and such
as a silly 'ole nuisance
or will he love

much



like the man in my head
who is looking to find
a woman like me
with the creases
and
lines

He likes what he sees
you may say that is vain

But not for a woman of ruffles and rain

speak of fire!
speak of fever
surrender to lace
and don't ever forget
to lay claim to my face
for my hair it will cover
the sighs and the heat
but hold me not long
I belong at your feet

So I looked at him boldly
and told him a lie
of shyness and innocence
hid behind eyes
that poured strongly into his
withering glance
The wall crumbled down
as I braced
for the dance

"If you take me now willingly
I will not fall
into piles of sweet ruffles
Not once

not at all"

And he did convince her
to take off her hat
and lie down
in the garden
of this
and of that

The hat said
the hat said
the hat said
"Don't wait!"

If you stand there and tease him
it might be too late."
lace that fell once
and lace that fell twice
lace that fell hard
on the floor of her life



So I opened my eyes
and brushed back my hair
as I listened to him
and tried not to stare

"Put down that box!"
he said with a grin,

I'm waiting, my love...
I want to come in."

I said not a word
I said not a word
do you know how far lace has to fall
to be
heard?

And slowly he peeled all the layers away

and found all the secrets
she'd wanted to stay
under branches of crinoline
scratches of pain
the girl
the girl
the girl

in the rain

and that Mimi she wasn't she wasn't afraid

to trust
so she offered her all in the stead
of lovers who knew not her fire
nor her heart

and he
wickedly
scorchingly
loved
only
her

in the closet of hats
where nothing was heard

Photography credit: Mimi Lenox I'll just be here under my Easter bonnet, embarking on another adventure during Easter vacation.
I will be back Monday May 2, 2011. In the meantime, enjoy Poetry Week on Mimi Writes.