Patently Depicted in a Hat

She thought she’d round up two

of her annoying alternate identities –  
from whom she felt the worst attack –

and have them patently depicted in a hat.
Not to make some grand esthetic point,
or anything like that – but rather

in the hope that if she gave them air,
perhaps they’d cease afflicting her
with such extravagant despair;

that she might learn to dread them less
if they were unapologetically displayed
for all to see in a theatrical head-dress.

Alas, the milliner she called on to erect
its mass and sew its seams invoked
their faces half again as large

as they appeared to her in dreams.
Each now aims at her a sidelong
haughty glare, and schemes. You’d think

she’d take it off. Instead, she wears it
everywhere – emitting, now and then,
a soft embarrassed cough.





.