The Hat Tree

The Hat Tree (circa 1968)

I wish I were a hat tree standing in the corner,

Laughing in a clown's hat, or don a derby to be a mourner.

I could change my whole personality with each different hat;

Without schooling, I put on a mortarboard and that would be that.

A scholar or dunce, a Mexican, Frenchman, or Russian;

I could be almost anything I want without too much fussing.

Ah, the quick change could be mine were I not an unchanging man,

But merely an imaginative hat tree set in the corner to stand.