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Such an outdated term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