18/30 PAD Challenge Glosa

He appears to be smiling out at us as if he knew
we would be amused by the extraordinary hat on his head
which is fitted around the brim with candle holders,
a device that allowed him to work into the night.

-Billy Collins, “Candle Hat”

The Hats

I remember him well, our neighbor,

puttering about in his garden

humming to himself, wearing that ridiculous hat.

Some said he was crazy,

others called him eccentric.

The hat was rhinestone studded and blue,

wide rimmed, which shaded him, while he worked.

His photo was still in the entryway of his house.

We wondered about him, what he was up to.

He appears to be smiling out at us as if he knew. 

They say when his wife was alive,

they took a cruise to some exotic place

and had the time of their lives

dancing, eating their fill, going a little wild.

And they bought those matching hats.

Hers was rhinestone studded and red.

They worked and chatted in the garden,

until one Indian summer evening she passed.

So he must have thought, though she was dead,
we would be amused by the extraordinary hat on his head.

So we went into the house as prospective buyers.

It would be a little rental we could care for from next door.

I hadn’t been in the house since I was a small child.

It brought back memories of a flowered apron,

a smiling woman and a tray of cookies.

The realtor lady impatiently tapped her folders.

I asked if I could see the attic

and that’s when I found the old trunk,

(I remember him carrying it up on his shoulders)

which is fitted around the brim with candle holders.

The wax had dripped down the sides.
It appeared to be some kind of memorial.
I gingerly opened it, breaking some of the wax.
Tucked inside was the red hat
and underneath, a pink baby dress
and a photo of a baby in white.
And then I remember watching him
make a tiny box up there in the attic
wearing a hat, like a miner’s hat with a light,
a device that allowed him to work into the night.