(DON'T TELL THEM ABOUT THE HAT)

 

The other day I posted a poem about my old shoes…and if my overalls are to be believed…the next day as I put them on…they said they were aggrieved.

“Why should your shoes get all the recognition?” the overalls said.  “They’re dirty and they smell…when you’ve been wearing me…your overalls for 30 years as well.

 

Of course they’re right…for over 30 years wearing these overalls in the yard I have been kneeling…in truth when I wrote about my shoes…I didn’t know overalls had feelings.

But apparently they do…so bear with me if you please….

for it seems I have a pair of overalls…I’m obligated to appease.

Since my overalls their friendship I do not want to lose

I must tell you I purchased them…the same day I bought my shoes.

They have helped me in the yard…I wore them when I painted walls…

In fact everything I did in those shoes…I did in my overalls.

My overalls have been with me literally through my thick and through my thin

even when I weighed 190 pounds…they stretched…but let me in.

They have become a little frayed…as they’ve worked hard all these years.

and they are permanently stained with dirt and blood and sweat and tears.

Yes, these are the only overalls I’ll ever need and I’m happy here to tout them

for when it comes to working at our cabin…I don’t know what I’d do without them.

My overalls would like me to add…one final bit of news…

that they are always put on first…always before my shoes.

PS…don’t tell the shoes or pants….but you see that pith helmet…the one that makes my head look small…it is older than both my shoes and my overalls…

Deborah’s dad wore it to work in the yard…in his garden and under his trees…

and when he died his old pith helmet was handed down to me.

I wear it lovingly to remind me of him…and the world he worked hard to create….

and although I make this hat look good…

Deborah’s dad made it look great.