Library of Congress Poetry: A Pair of Patient Pants

(I’m exploring poetry through images by tapping into the extensive collection of the Library of Congress on Flickr. There are some amazing images shared with the public and more coming every month or two, it seems. What can inspire you? Be sure to cite where you got the image from. Use Alan Levine’s Flickr Attribution tool and your life is a breeze.)


flickr photo shared by The Library of Congress with no copyright restriction (Flickr Commons)

I’m still here:
a pair of pants left behind
while y’all went swimmin’

I’m hangin’ on this here hook,
listenin’ for the splashin’
of the bodies in the brook

Ain’t I surprised
no one took me
with them shoes and socks and shirts
when you weren’t lookin’?

No more surprised
than your mammy no doubt was
when you arrived home,
nearly naked with no memories
of where yer pants could have gone

and me, just here waitin’ —
just watchin’ through the days
for someone to take notice:
I’m a pair of patient pants.

Process Note: I saw this image of clothes on a hook and laughed, imagining a group of kids gone swimming, leaving their clothes behind.

Peace (it’s patient),
Kevin

2 Comments
  1. This would be my boys. “Clothes, what clothes?”
    Love the personification.
    And again, I love your sign off! Peace really does have to be patient.

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