Modern Anthropology I

 I do not speak

This modern language of clothes

In sweat pants and Chinese hat

To work I do go

I see in the faces

Of morning bus riders

Disgust and disdain

For my casual attire

They do not know

I change in my office

They judge without thinking

That’s how tribal law is

Listen, I’d wear a pin stripe suit to bed

If it’d make me a better teacher

But it’s the man not the clothes

That teaches and reaches you

I do not speak this language of clothes

Or wish to know its taboos or to dos

I only know how primitive it is

When superficial judgments we choose to use

Perhaps they are right to judge by my wear

Perhaps I am a savage in modern dress

The truth is that I really don’t care

That’s my civil response to this world’s savageness