Underwear

Underwear
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I didn’t get much sleep last night thinking about underwear
Have you ever stopped to consider underwear in the abstract
When you really dig into it some shocking problems are raised
Underwear is something we all have to deal with
Everyone wears some kind of underwear
Even Indians wear underwear
Even Cubanswear underwear
The Pope wears underwear I hope
The Governor of Louisiana wears underwear
I saw him on TV He must have had tight underwear
He squirmed a lot
Underwear can really get you in a bind
You have seen the underwear ads for men and women
so alike but so different
Women’s underwear holds things up
Men’s underwear holds things down
Underwear is one thing men and women do have in common
Underwear is all we have between us
You have seen the three-color pictures
with crotches encircled to show the areas of extra strength
with three-way stretch promising full freedom of action
Don’t be deceived
It’s all based on the two-party system
which doesn’t allow much freedom of choice
the way things are set up America in its Underwear struggles
thru the night Underwear controls everything
in the end Take foundation garments for instance
They are really fascist forms of underground government
making people believe something
but the truth telling you what you can of can’t do
Did you ever try to get around a girdle
Perhaps Non-Violent Action is the only answer
Did Gandhi wear a girdle?
Did Lady Macbeth wear a girdle?
Was that why Macbeth murdered sleep?
And the spot she was always rubbing
-Was it really her underwear?
Modern anglosaxon ladiesmust have huge guilt complexesalways washing and washing and washingOut damned spot
Underwear with spots very suspicious
Underwear with bulges very shocking
Underwear on clothesline a great flag of freedom
Someone has escaped his Underwear
May be naked somewhereHelp!
But don’t worryEverybody’s still hung up in it
There won’t be no real revolution
And poetry still the underwear of the soul
And underwear still coveringa multitude of faults in the geological sense
-strange sedimentary stones, inscrutable cracks!
If I were you I’d keep aside an oversize pair of winter underwear
Do not go naked into that good night
And in the meantime keep calm and warm and dry
No use stirring ourselves up prematurely ‘over Nothing’
Move forward with dignity hand in vest
Don’t get emotional
And death shall have no dominion
There’s plenty of time my darling
Are we not still young and easy?
Don’t shout.