silk satin · 54 · spring · worn 1962
cherry-coloured silk over a small drum of buckram. no brim, no shadow,
only the small architecture of a hat that wishes to be seen and not
hidden under. a single dark feather sweeps from the side.
the small dent in the top is not in the crown itself but in the
buckram beneath — a thumb pressed it years ago, getting the hat onto
the head a third time after church.
worn through one long spring and the funeral of a friend. the silence after has never quite lifted from it.
field-note: the hatpin is missing. the small hole in the satin shows where it lived.
cloche · wide-brim · chimney sweep · a feather · parlour