cowboy hat

Bryan Ferry

Comeuppance
Such an outdated term
She flips a switch
and the lights come gently on
Spot lights on the ceiling
A mouth full of pins
Focus pulls
and the room feels a mall
Lit from the inside out
Apart from the slight chill
our two figures glow
There are fifty years between us
and I often wonder
when I see her
Is this a special occasion or not?
She s working under a lamp
My shadow a pole
in two places at once
Standing on the set of scales
for the extra inch
The glass covering the dial
is frosty with age
She s pinning the hem of the trouser leg
Outside the door moths fly
Pine cones line a shelf

I don t like things with fringes
Not any thing, she says
But this
I ve worn it to death
She nods to her lapels
A pin drops
and I feel the miniscule powers
of the muscles in my face
leaping at a chance
Let me please get the hat, I say
Just a second, she says
You always want the high impact jobs
The big reveals
She lets go of the trouser leg and it drops
swinging
A millimetre
Perfection
From the floor
Next time we ll do silk, she says
I knew a girl
The same size as you
She wasn t half a fidgeter but you
Always still