Why I Wear a Boonie Hat - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

Why I Wear a Boonie Hat

 

Mostly to try to avoid speeding tickets

And maybe someone will say, “Thank you for your service”

And pay for my coffee in gratitude

But they just stop at “Thank you for your service”

 

Sometimes I meet some other old man

And we ask each other where we were

Memories – some of them surprisingly good

Others dark enough

                                      And we were so young

 

My boonie hat keeps the sun off my head

And the fluorescents in the Social Security office

It makes me look like John Wayne in The Geriatric Berets

Not really. Maybe a different angle…how’s that?

 

And young women come up to me to say

That their grandfathers were in Viet-Nam

So You're Still Wearing Your Old Boonie Hat? - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com

So You’re Still Wearing Your Old Boonie Hat?

The old man asked. Old man. Maybe my age
“The original is carefully put away;
This one I ordered off the amazon”
His wooden stick was leaned against the pew

His grown children glanced disapprovingly
At two old dudes whispering during Mass
After the Eucharist, before the hymn
And the “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”

He said he burned his Marine Corps sea bag
when he got home, but somehow you could tell
           it hadn’t helped