American Life in Poetry: ‘My Mother Worries About My Hat’ by Richard Jarrette

Sat., March 12, 2016

Ted Kooser U.S. poet laureate, 2004-06

In my limited experience, mothering and worrying go hand in hand. Here’s a mother’s worry poem by Richard Jarrette, from his fine book, “A Hundred Million Years of Nectar Dances.” He lives in California.

My Mother Worries About My Hat

Every spring my mother says I should buy a straw

hat so I won’t overheat in summer.

I always agree but the valley’s soon cold, and besides

my old Borsalino is nearly rain-proof.

She’s at it again, it’s August, the grapes are sugaring.

I say, Okay, and pluck a little spider from her hair—

hair so fine it can’t hold even one of her grandmother’s

tortoise shell combs.

Poem copyright 2015 by Richard Jarrette, from “A Hundred Million Years of Nectar Dances” (Green Writers Press, 2015). American Life in Poetry is made supported by the Poetry Foundation and the English department at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We do not accept unsolicited submissions.