The Tragic Life of Hats

by Seth Hagen


In twenty-three
Ascot appearances,
the princess wore 
twenty-two hats. 

Each rode a starry
saddle of mind but 
could not break 
what would not be

broken. At the museum, 
a tall man’s taller hat 
enshrined in glass.
The hats of the dead 

live on. Inflammable 
death masks of who 
we wanted 
to be.







Seth Hagen lives in Atlanta. His work has been featured in Verse Daily and appears or is forthcoming in Sugar House Review, DIAGRAM, Willow Springs, LIT Magazine, Gone Lawn, Unbroken, and other journals.

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