Clothes never made men
Except in the claims of clothing
Manufacturers and sales staff
Leather jackets didn’t produce
Marlon Brando or the Hell’s Angels
Bomber jackets lined with lambs’
Wool were something to wear
In the cold blue yonder
Silk scarves in WWI kept
A pilot’s neck from painfully
Scuffing as they searched from
Side to side up and down
Constantly for their adversaries
Goggles prevented hot oil exhaust
Spun from their engines from blinding
The pilots marines didn’t land
Ashore in their dress blues power
Execs wear posh suits and ties in a
Psy-ops maneuver to disable their
Less remunerated fellows the pope
Has white cardinals red bishops
Purple garden variety priests black
Franciscans brown robes at Walmart
Target and the like the worker bees
Wear worker dress the honchos must
Don ties surgeons get special scrubs
Which peons steal to impress the
Plebes in short if you’ve got the
Costume you’ve got the job until
You open your mouth and prove
Otherwise anybody can dress like
A rapper a cop or an insurance agent
It’s verbal facility that pulls off the
Patois so why make a fuss over
Clothes as long as they’re clean
No you don’t want bricklayers
Wearing balloon pants or dancers
Wearing diving suits unless under
Water there’s a place and a time for
Dress a lot is the expectation of the
Audience I wouldn’t give a
Sermon in a tutu or clown suit
Or my usual raggedy clothes
Although well-worn or I would
Call proven items can be comforting
To me who knows the image
Conjured in the beholder it’s
Better to appear in some
Standard get-up the comedian’s
Black turtleneck and jeans
The pianist’s formal tails
The lecturer’s tweed blazer
With leather patches sans pipe
I don’t smoke the beauty pageant’s
One-piece or evening gown
That’s all if your point is serious
Otherwise show up in a gorilla
Suit overwhelm them with
Jester’s motley or harlequin
Except don’t outpace your
Material subdued for low key
Or satire pull out the stops for
Buffoonery
c. J.S.Manista, 2015
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