Flirtation with Paisley

 Magical Thinking ( A Fashion History )

After a flirtation with paisley
shirts and Carnaby
Street polka – dot ties,
I spent the rest of the 60’s
retreating into a safe background
of button down oxford fashions.
I talked the talk
and smoked the dope in question
but I liked to look
like a slide rule fanatic
who let his hair get a little long.
I thought nothing could go wrong
if my attire was bland
and all the days would flow like a song.

But it was all just
magical thinking
applied to personal fashion;
looking back on it,
I should have spent more time drinking.

Things were going all right for a while
until the 70’s
hit their ‘disco’ stride
of polyester travesty
and I was imprisoned in those styles of garish big collars and flares.
But then the 80’s
appeared out of nowhere
and I felt safer
looking like a dead preppy
no one would possibly want to hurt.
Yet, people were still quite curt
as if I were wearing
a Bermuda Triangle T – shirt.

But it was all just
magical thinking
applied to personal fashion;
looking back on it,
I should have spent more time drinking.

2009