Words about a hat (for hi-hat)

Hat!

Today you flew!

The wind it blew! 

You off my head!

Into a major intersection!

Whipped high like a plastic bag, you fell --

a parachuting piano,

a bird unfolding,

a half-life in double time,

a pocket's escape 

You landed, you lunged, you paused ferocious 

now glided coolly along the crosswalk,

oceanic Atlantic Avenue

your Abbey Road.

Then a taxi ran over you.

And a jeep.

I did not breathe.

You soldiered on,

determined to cross the street.

I waited for danger DON'T

to cool to permission WALK

and as it did, you turned 

left, to cross another street.

"Hat!"

 I waded out into Atlantic, 

my hair a lashing mess of 

landline wires & guitar strings,

and as I approached,

you stilled mid-seastream

a grasshopper fish, 

legs coiled with song;

my clamorous mind calmed,

to a one-note cat, 

preparing to 

swat!

I caught you!

And carried you back to!

sidewalk safety.  

(rest)

I've inspected you many times since, 

expecting to see

some mark, some proof

of your tempestuous journey,

but the tires left not one trace

across your humble, tweed face.

And I look at you still,

hoping to behold

that flashing spirit,

that ability, 

that curiosity, 

that yearning 

To fly! 

I'd have been blue to lose you, sweet hat, 

but I regret the precision cat 

who stopped you in your song,

who sometimes stops me in mine,

my 'fraidy cat...

To stand against the wind, 

thinking one can control 
that awesome force, 

or to let go and truly live?

Perhaps that question is answered best 

by the weight of one's own fabric,
not by choice;
yet, in places where 

there are no signs

to direct one's moves, I see that 
one must throw caution to the wind and just

b e  w i l l i n g  

to fly, 
to dance,
to sing, 
to swim, 
to wail on a blues guitar, 

to do & be so many things, 
yes!
to be to be to be!

(solo for wind instrument)