Last Leg.

So I went through my closet and drawers for spring cleaning, but there isn’t all that much there that I don’t wear… save one specific category I realize I may have legitimately grown beyond. I had three years of wearing slacks and now I’m kind of done I bought them all online, on sale They weren’t all that much fun. Up ’til then, trousers were a breeze my grown-up job required easy-fitting newish dungarees and ties just for emergencies when clients happened by. You see, I’d been an artist, more or less in companies that let you dress the way you wanted, and I guess (although I never looked a mess) my individuality was (on my outside) what you’d see - I’d feel a skosh of true self-loathing wrapped in carbon copy clothing… …back in grade school, as a kid we all wore uniforms bright light blue shirts and navy pants for eight years was the norm. Right after that I quietly swore not to wear navy anymore: thus, in the four-plus decades hence black 501s just made more sense until three years ago when I set out to do some good in places where a well-established dress code said I should pipe down, fit in, and not offend head low, eyes high, discreetly blend and wear the pants we tell you to (which didn’t seem that hard to do) so I dut-i-fully secured a pair for every weekday and paired them with a collared shirt for grown-up business cosplay as Dockers™ mean security and represent maturity in roles with deep obscurity but they did not “spark joy” in me and slowly as the time went by their fit became much tighter because I’d set the dryer on high (large load / all cotton / extra dry). Then one by one they lost their sheen and sported dark grey tones as each leg sleeve shrunk farther up above my anklebones until one day they didn’t fit. I can’t imagine how, but I could barely fasten them. My daughter wears them now. Get full access to :lowerblackpain at lowerblackpain.substack.com/subscribe