‘Hey, cowboy, you got a shit hat,’
and he pulled at the rim, and tore a piece off, and then each of them, each
wearing a real leather hat crept up and plucked another bit, so that at the end of the
party it wasn’t a hat anymore, but some kind of a miner’s cap, in fact I could introduce
myself as a miner. They tore my cardboard hat into pieces and now they knew
what it meant, what you say, what you do to someone who is different when he
pretends to belong.

‘Hey, cowboy, you got a shit hat,’
and he pulled at the rim, and tore a piece off, and then each of them, each
wearing a real leather hat crept up and plucked another bit, so that at the end of the
party it wasn’t a hat anymore, but some kind of a miner’s cap, in fact I could introduce
myself as a miner. They tore my cardboard hat into pieces and now they knew
what it meant, what you say, what you do to someone who is different when he
pretends to belong.