Pure Disbelief

1974, the year of floral prints

And plummeting nylon bikinis

Like the bodies of birds

From the institutional open windows

Of a college dorm.

 

And then, a sight that made

All faces turn up in hushed wonder

Your mother's large white briefs

Like a mainsail, a flag of surrender

Slowly dancing down current

Cinematic, lithe.

 

It was the opposite of being lifted

Into the sky, the way I imagined

My grandfather ascending

After the long pain of illness

This large pair of underpants

Falling forever on the startled face

Of an undergraduate boy.

 

The scene, absurd and surreal

As if nature itself had played a prank

On the unsuspecting crowd

A moment frozen in time

As the world held its breath

Like those holding a hoop to save

A child burning.

 

It was a moment of pure disbelief

A break from the mundane

A dance of the absurd and the real

A sight that etched itself

Into the memories of all who witnessed

The fall of the oversized undergarments

In the year of floral prints

And plummeting nylon bikinis. ("Pure Disbelief") by Courtney Weaver Jr.