That old straw sojourner
david matherne

an old patched hat, which was almond with trim-red,
watched as it sat on an old, thin head.
and what it saw, and what it knew,
was more than more of you
might even ever construe 5
from just a patched, old hat.

it’d seen a child die—depression--a war,
bowed at the bedside of the lady once adored,
watched while its owner did weep when his store
burned down to the ground, nothing left but the floor10
and that brand-new hat on his head.

it saw with lucid eyes inhuman, divine
the tired man grew older, while his boy grew wise.
some said, ‘so tragic,’ the son said, ‘fate’
when the lightning left a char on the elder’s pate 15
and they both did loving before too late.
that special bequest.

so he wore his farming father’s dingy hat every day,
hoping it would make him like his only hero in that way.
so the hat went to school, 20
then it kept him somewhat cool
as he worked the plow and mule
like his fallen father had.

it had been there when the midwife had announced, ‘you’ve a boy.’
the hat was there when his wife had their second little joy.25
so the family worked the farm
until the boy took arm-in-arm
a girl from town with mighty charm
who had a fancy for shoes and hats.

the married lad watched his dad lose his crops, then his wealth,30
while the hat witnessed worse, constant fleeting of his health.
on the porch until the end, father son simply sat.
being heir, he got the farm, and the house, and the cat.
but what he really wanted most was that one thing that
was truly old hat. 35

he got it and he wore it and he tore it and he patched it,
but the hat didn’t mind since the man truly matched it.
he grew thin and he grew old,
of all the things he’d ever sold,
no value like what he’d unfold 40
to his own son one patched old hat.

what is being personified in the first three stanzas of the poem? a) a burned store b) a tired old man c) an old patched hat d) a child dying in war