Old Grey Hat

by Eric Chaet

I found this battered old grey hat
on a street in Wichita—
picked it up & put it on my head.
It was the middle of the winter, middle of the night—
I had a bad case of loneliness
frostbite & that kind of fright
you get when you drift into another strange city
on a highway you’ve been hitching on too long.

I don’t know how a thing like this
can cheer a battered old grey soul
but it picked my spirit right up off the sidewalk.
It was the middle of the winter
middle of the night—
I had a bad case of neither young or old
no one to get angry at, & no one to hold—
like you get when you refuse to be
lost & worthless as people take you to be
’cause they forget what they were meant to be
& you won’t be any less than.

I found this battered old grey hat
on a street in Wichita—
I picked it up & put it on my head.
It was the middle of the winter
middle of the night—
I was accusing me of loneliness
afraid that they were right—
but now I wear this old grey hat
to light the way I’ve just begun to get sight of.

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Song lyric from 1977 vinyl LP album, Solid and Sound.