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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
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In my limited experience, mothering and worrying go hand in hand. Here’s a mother’s worry poem by Richard Jarrette, from his fine book, A Hundred Million Years of Nectar Dances. He lives in California. My Mother Worries About My Hat Every spring my mother says I should buy a straw
hat so I won’t overheat in summer.
I always agree but the valley’s soon cold, and besides
my old Borsalino is nearly rain-proof.
She’s at it again, it’s August, the grapes are sugaring.
I say, Okay, and pluck a little spider from her hair—
hair so fine it can’t hold even one of her grandmother’s
tortoise shell combs.
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How my heart sings 