The poem was occasioned by a hat - a grey Borsalino of the same style worn by Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, Rick in Casablanca, & Walter Neff in Double Indemnity (and numerous other films noir).  As much as those hats concealed Humprey Bogart's or Fred MacMurray's lustrous hair, they revealed so much about their characters (or, more accurately, their characters' character). As Galway Kinnell wrote in St. Francis and the Sow, "The bud / stands for all things ...."  The same can be said for Borsalinos.  As with that bud, a hat can even stand for / confer a blessing (which may account for why those observant of my tribe wear same in & out of synagogue). My Borsalino now conceals the loss of my hair due to the latest round of chemotherapy, and (I hope) reveals the triumph of love & hope over cynicism.

Neil Silberblatt is the founder/director of Voices of Poetry, with more than 10,600 members on Facebook. Since 2012, he has curated and presented over 400 poetry events in MA, CT, NY & NJ. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, including Plume Poetry Journal, Mom Egg Review, Lily Poetry Review, Tiferet Journal, American Journal of Poetry, and Tikkun Daily. His poem, “Burnt Offering,” was selected by Mass Poetry as their “Poem of the Moment.” Neil’s work appears in various anthologies, including Collateral Damage and Culinary Poems. Neil's poetry collections are So Far, So Good and Present Tense, and Past Imperfect, nominated for the Mass Book Award in Poetry. He has been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize.