The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: HAT

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

In January I wrote about: apron, bar, basketball, bed, bicycle, birthday, boat, broom, button, cake, car.

In February: chair, chlorine, church, concert, cookbook, couch, dancing, desk, dessert, dining room table, diploma.

March: divorce, door, dream, emergency room, envelope, eyebrows, first apartment, first job, food, game, garden.

April: I took a break to focus on ARTSPEAK: Happy!

Here are the prompts for May: gloves, great-grandparent, guidebook, gun, gym class, hair, hands, hat, high heels, honeymoon, hood.

HAT

I've never liked the way I look in hats, so I haven't really worn that many of them! Nevertheless, I was able to create a list poem:

My Life in Hats

Lacy white christening cap

with long satin strings,

yellow ruffled Easter bonnet

to make a daffodil of my face.

Belted pilgrim hat for the school

Thanksgiving feast,

black felt witch's hat for Halloween.

Mickey – not Minnie – Mouse ears

bought at Cinderella's castle,

soon left to collect dust on my dresser.

Crisp candystriper hat bobby-pinned

to my long blonde hair,

Krystal's brown baseball cap to show

customers I was old enough to work there.

Wide-brimmed, floppy straw garden hat,

waterproof fishing hat with neck flaps

to prevent sunburn.

Most days, no hat at all.

- Irene Latham