She wants what no clerk in the city can bring her,
a hat that will make up her mind.
-- Daniel Mark Epstein. "At the Millinery Shop"
She wants a hat that can think for itself,
that will select the proper head for its household.
-- Daniel Mark Epstein. "At the Millinery Shop"
She wants what no clerk in the city can bring her,
a hat that will make up her mind.
White satin speaks to the red in her cheeks,
red satin to the white.
Blue crepe shades the clear well of her eye.
She wants a hat to fit her head like an idea
so perfect only she could have dreamed it up,
a hat that draws attention to itself by disappearing
and to the head by building on it
a profusion of silent worlds in incomparable colors.
She wants a hat that can think for itself,
that will select the proper head for its household.
She turns her back on the round table-mirror
and garden of hats on spindles,
admiring the beige lid with a feathery band.
Holding it at arm's length,
her eyes half-closed,
she leans back
under a straw bonnet crowned with flowers
that casually tries itself on her.
-- Daniel Mark Epstein. "At the Millinery Shop"