This Hat

You: Take this hat, wear it when you're feeling shaky

I found it in a neighborhood I used to roam,

a place I wasn't supposed to go.  

It was a time

I walked like a boxer

I'm throwing punches now in my sleep, missing wild

knocking myself out, sitting at a desk

It's a place I'm not supposed to leave.

I can't tell you more, only why I stay

You: Take this smile, wear it in bad weather

I saw it in the window of a bar I used to rage, 

passing by too fast to recognize.  

These days

I take a taxi

This is a place I’m not supposed to revisit

I can't tell you when I left, only why I did

You: Take my hat, wear it when you're feeling shaky

said wear it when you're feeling

wrote this a lifetime ago, working in NYC

How It Happens

The sky said I am watching

to see what you

can make out of nothing

I was looking up and I said

I thought you

were supposed to be doing that

the sky said Many

are clinging to that

I am giving you a chance

I was looking up and I said

I am the only chance I have

then the sky did not answer

and here we are

with our names for the days

the vast days that do not listen to us

— W.S. Merwin