Daddy's Boxers

Margaret V.Doran

        When Daddy came home from the Navy
        after the Second World War,
        he brought home his GI boxer shorts,
        more comfy than those from the store

        When they wore out he insisted
        that mom should make him some
        but she didn't have a pattern;
        where would that come from?

        So she cut one pair apart
        and measured and then drew
        and cut from old newspaper
        a pattern to make a few

        And years later when the pattern
        had grown all worn and thin
        she decided she was done
        and would not make them again

        She determined to make him want
        to buy new ones from the store
        and chose her fabric well
        so he would not ask for more

        Then she made them with pink and blue bunnies
        and cute little diaper pins;
        great big orange polka dots
        and fish with funny fins

        She made them with cooking utensils
        and playing cards and more.
        She sewed them of outrageous hues
        and flowers that girls would adore

        And for all her wily ways,
        my father did not seem to care
        for no one ever really saw him
        standing around in his underwear

        Until one day at the bowling alley
        as he bent to fix a lane,
        the entire seam of his pants went "rip"
        and disappeared, simple and plain

        And left him standing in front
        of a league of sixty women
        in nothing but his boxer shorts
        with purple fish a-swimmin'

        Now sometimes I wax nostalgic
        standing dwey-eyed in the store
        amidst the racks of boxer shorts
        with funny pictures and more

        Yes, my mother was a visionary
        sewing shorts with oranges and limes
        and my father in his boxer shorts
        was a man before his times!

Copyright © 1997 Margaret V. Doran. All rights reserved.
If you enjoyed this poem, please send her an e-mail here.

Written in response to "Underwear" by Ferlinghetti

Updated July 1, 1999
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