Bewitching in My Hat
by Alarie Tennille
Key up the theme song to Jaws.
Coworkers spot a black triangle
bobbing past the high cubicle walls.
Don’t tell me you’ve never worn
a witch’s hat to work!
Business as usual.
On any given day at Hallmark,
you can round a corner and find
Santa, Maxine, Winnie-the-Pooh,
or Star Wars characters juxtaposed
against the museum art on the walls.
A pointy hat beats flat hair.
Darn! I have a lunch date at a stylish
French bistro. The hostess seats us
in the front window.
Tap, tap, tap!
Shoppers rap on the glass, mouth,
“Great hat!”
AUTHOR’S PHOTO CAPTION: I’m standing in front of our house on the day of my adventure (about 2010). In late October, I swap my Facebook profile photo for this pose. I like to think I’d make an excellent Language Arts instructor at Hogwarts.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Hallmark employees are creative with or without a holiday as an excuse, so I wanted to join the Halloween fun. I don’t sew, so my witch’s costume was thrown together at the last minute from things I had at home. I usually wear bright colors, so dressing in all black was enough of a challenge. Because my husband also worked there, he just happened to have the witch’s hat. He bought it for a classroom presentation on how to create spooky lettering
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia, and graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class admitting women. She misses the ocean, but loves the writing community she’s found in Kansas City, Missouri. Alarie serves on the Emeritus Board of The Writers Place. Alarie’s poetry collection, Running Counterclockwise, was First Runner Up for the 2015 Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence. She’s also written a chapbook, Spiraling into Control, and her poems have appeared in numerous journals including Margie, Poetry East, I-70 Review, Midwest Quarterly Review, and Southern Women’s Review. Visit her at alariepoet.com.
Silver Birch Press 