Commentary

In the not-so-distant past
National Geographic indulged
its readers with photographic
evidence that primitive tribal
peoples' fixation on fashion and
beauty was quite unlike our own
where stretching necks and earlobes
wearing metal rings through noses
and tattoos covering every inch
of skin appeared to fascinate
and repel the fastidious among us.
The past has regenerated itself
among our own youth who struggle
to distinguish themselves through
their own inimitable aesthetic
so unlike that of the previous
generations wedded to their
ideas of gentry and elite fashion.
The problem it seemed to the
young was that what they would
make in vogue would migrate
toward the taste of those they
strove so mightily not to emulate
and their culture appropriated by
the despised masses that predated
their own enlightened appearance.
Until the young and the hip adopted
body-covering tattoos, lip-, naval-
and nose-piercings and the older
generation simply sighed and
left them to enjoy the radical
new focus on embroidering the
human form so tantalizingly.