Cowboy Hat

Comeuppance Such an outdated term She flips a switch And the lights come gently on Spot lights on the ceiling A mouth full of pins Focus pulls And the room feels a mall Lit from the inside out Apart from the slight chill Our two figures glow There are fifty years between us And I often wonder When I see her Is this a special occasion or not? She’s working under a lamp My shadow a pole In two places at once Standing on the set of scales For the extra inch The glass covering the dial Is frosty with age She’s pinning the hem of thе trouser leg Outside thе door moths fly Pine cones line a shelf I don’t like things with fringes Not any thing, she says But this I’ve worn it to death She nods to her lapels A pin drops And I feel the miniscule powers Of the muscles in my face Leaping at a chance Let me please get the hat, I say Just a second, she says You always want the high impact jobs The big reveals She lets go of the trouser leg and it drops Swinging A millimetre Perfection From the floor Next time we’ll do silk, she says I knew a girl The same size as you She wasn’t half a fidgeter but you Always still