Plantation

Montecristi Panama Hat

Kwame Dawes

And, eventually, we remember only the deepest
gloom, waiting still for the sudden suspense
of illumination—the light, blinding
and then showing up the pale squalid 
weariness of aging things. It is hard for me 
to think of what I have to accept,
the dust of it, and to know that this emptiness
is a contagion, a quality of thought 
that is as cursed as my heart, 
my dodgy right toe, and this gout, 
the white man’s legacy in me—
this and the gloom that follows me
over to the porch, where I can see all
I survey to be mine—this is the dust
I will return to. One thing I’d like to say:
This summer hat, this pricey
topping. I love, the way it fits;
money well-spent. It is the man I dream
I am, standing in a soft light outside
the gloom ready to dance for us.