Our Many Hats

I'm working on a couple longer poems right now, so in the meantime, here's a poem I wrote during the Freshman Writing Seminar last September. It's about the many hats we wear in life...

Hats, hats, so many hats;

we all wear so many hats.

But these aren't like birthday hats,

or crowns, or wigs, or baseball caps.

We're always wearing some kind of hat,

sometimes even more than one.

Constantly taking off, and putting on,

it really sounds like lots of fun.

One, or two, or three, or four,

it just depends on how we feel.

How silly this all would look,

if these hats were actually real.

You could wear an athlete's hat;

these hats are dirty, soaked in sweat.

Or maybe an artist's hat;

these are as colorful as they get.

Or the hat of a musician:

vibrant, shiny, full of sound.

Or any hat that requires real work

persistently worn, though it falls to the ground.

Hopefully, you've worn a teacher's hat,

always ready to help another.

Or the many roles in family:

daughter, son, father, mother.

But the hat we should always have on,

is the one we can forever depend.

The one that loves no matter what.

The one of a true friend.

Everyone owns different hats,

gaining new ones as they live.

The more we receive as we go,

the more we have, to give.

--DW 9/08