We asked the judge of our 2024 Open Poetry Competition, Kathryn Gray, to award the fourth prize to four poems equally. One of these was “Hats I will inherit from my grandmother” by Julia Usman.
Kathryn’s comment on Julia’s poem was:
“How I enjoyed this colourful portrait of an assertive, misbehaving, sexual woman and her unapologetic life, imparted through her signature mode of apparel: a series of hats, each of which denotes complementary personal qualities and, for the eventual beneficiary of them, may represent a credo of sorts (bohemianism, magnetism, predation, mystery, indefatigability). The poem is powered by an admirable economy – over five tercets – and the good judgement to reveal just enough leg to seduce the reader’s imagination into running wild to fill in the backstory. And what a great and ambiguous end to a poem that summons this unsinkable spirit – in stark contrast to, one can only suppose, the relatively ordinary, vanilla men (and women) in her life. A witty poem of genuine charm – but not one without a compelling sense of discomfort, either.”
Hats I will inherit from my grandmother
In the dressing table mirror
her beret lounges
as she chain-smokes whisky.
See her painted lips
a shameless mouth
that strays at parties
spilling moon-breasts
over younger men.
And when she wears a fascinator
she teases the bingo halls.
See her preen and prowl
hunt a deerstalker, coddle his kiss.
Now watch her slouch in a cloche.
Ninety years and still counting
all the boaters she has sunk.
The Kent & Sussex Poetry Society 