The Question of the Royal Purple Shorts

It wasn’t out of pretense that one thought to put them on –

one had no showy wish to claim one had been born

to wear that hue. Could anyone with any moral self-

regard imagine sneaking in to seek the secret shelf

that some outré aristocrat kept guiltily for his silk underwear –

and steal it? Ah, but there was something more alive and rare –

how one could feel it! – bared as one prepared for the decision

to engender this display. One made it with precision.

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