My Shorts

Rain-gutter the sunbeams
downthigh. Revulsed by his British
officer guide on Gibraltar, Patton
wrote of “a skinny old fart in shorts.”
Knee knobs bared to the solstice scorch,
I expose in their moral shortcomings
my Gandhi shins. These brevities
blaspheme when donned by men
in Baghdad. I bet that “old fart”
Colonel Bogey was tough as a Gibraltar
bearded vulture. Hot item, I khaki
along the alleys in the knee pants
my mama done told me No.