Young Man with a Hat
J. Quinn Brisben
Nothing wrong with the head
Or the hair for that matter,
A good Caucasian mop, middling brown and
Of a profuse teenage thickness
But nearly always covered, sometimes
With one hat, often, at least today, with two,
Always the cap exactlt backwards
With the bill shading the neck, today
A broad black floppy brim borrowed,
I believe, from a friend, making him look
Like a pulp fiction hero who thrilled me
When I was his age: The Shadow, master
Of disguise and even, on radio, invisibility,
Who knew what evil lurked in the hearts
Of men; this one may know, too,
Although he is too polite to blurt it out;
At any rate his head is so full
Of pin-wheeling notions that they might
Dazzle us to blindness if he did not
Discreetly cover it at all times.
