mark weber | keeping warm but staying cool

it’s just cool enough to wear a hat
not that I’m going anywhere
I’d rather stay in
wear my hat indoors
read some of these books that
are piling up
besides, I’ve got a pot of tea brewing
some pinchfaced old goat stepped out of
a time warp the other day
and told me I couldn’t wear my hat
inside the concert hall
incredulous I challenged her, “WHY?”
if this was a stovepipe hat or a ten gallon
I could understand, but this is a beanie, a
knit pullover
she said it was their “policy” at the high school
we were there to hear Bobby Shew & Wayne
Bergeron play some trumpet with
the Albuquerque Jazz Orchestra
and
just to be an asshole I left my hat on
fuck her and fuck that stupid policy
christ-o-mighty, shades of
that locked-down high school I went to
four decades ago, these people need
to take an Ex-Lax, cool out
I feel sorry for the kids, one can only imagine
all the other dumbfounding policies
they have to tiptoe around
geezus christ on a crutch
apparently there’s no policy for interrupting
the hail fellow well met conversation I
was having with the pianist Chris Ishee
in the foyer

–mark weber
25mar08