Underwear poem

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

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 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

and 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 or 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 that spot she was always rubbing—

Was it really in her underwear?

Modern anglosaxon ladies

must have huge guilt complexes

always washing and washing and washing 

Out 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 somewhere

Help!

But don’t worry

Everybody’s still hung up in it

There won’t be no real revolution

And poetry still the underwear of the soul 

And underwear still covering

a 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

Ferlinghetti znalazł w bieliźnie motywy do refleksji. Pomimo, ze 'bielizna' według L.F odwołuje się do polityki, problemów mniejszości etnicznych jednak w dalszym ciągu podnosi i niezbędnie utożsamia całą ludzkość pomimo pozornych różnic jak stwierdził:

'każdy nosi bieliznę'

A więc bielizna to nie tylko kawałek materiału.

Bielizna to wygląd, uczucie i moda. Stanowi swoistą podstawę świata mody.

Przezroczysta czy nie, bielizna przyciąga wzrok ze względu na swoje walory estetyczne.

Figi, gorsety, podwiązki, pończoszki, majteczki, staniczki.

A jak wyglądało to kilkaset lat wstecz?Choćby taka Józefina Bonaparte – cesarzowa miała dwie pary majtek przy 200 sukniach.

Przyzwoite kobiety zaczęły nosić majtki po I wojnie światowej, gdy moda nakazała im skrócenie sukienek.

Jednak ta część garderoby zyskała popularność dopiero po II wojnie światowej. Najwięcej dla ich rozsławienia zrobiła angielska modelka Twiggy, podpisując w 1960 umowę z producentem biodrówek. Pierwsze stringi w kształcie listka figowego w 1974 zaprojektował dla koleżanki australijski awangardowy projektant mody Rudi Gernreich.

Obecnie cena bielizny przekraczają nawet kilkanaście tysięcy. Coraz więcej projektantów skupia się na tej część garderoby. Bo jak się okazuje, bielizna znaczy tyle samo co dobre buty, futro czy torba.