Editor: This poem is entitled “For Women Everywhere,” and is also for men who have ever had a wife or mother.
As a graduate nurse I had a white cap,
and a uniform worn with much pride,
But then I replaced the cap with a veil
on the day I became a new bride.
When I opened the clothes cupboard in my new home,
I was really astonished to see
numerous hats that I’d never worn;
they were quite unfamiliar to me.
A housekeeper’s hat, and a cook’s hat were there;
a gardener’s hat filled me with fears.
But those are now tattered and almost worn out
as I’ve added more hats through the years.
A barber’s, a bookkeeper’s, chauffeur’s and vet’s;
a farmer’s from winter through fall;
hats for a seamstress and laundress, of course,
and a diplomat’s hat tops them all.
Well, sometimes I shuffle and change them so much
those hats get all crumbled or worse.
Oh yes, I forgot — when a loved one is sick
I still wear the cap of a nurse.
Doris Riedweg,
Langley
