The Dress
It was a striped, royal blue and black dress.
It was definitely not gold and white.
I suspected everyone, deep down,
understood this. The dissenters were pretending,
yelling “gold and white!” for shock effect,
as some people like to do, though
the dress was clearly blue and black.
On my Facebook feed, I scrolled past the dress
multiple times a day, sometimes pausing
to peruse the arguments and shake my head at
the dress hanging there innocently, blue and black,
washed out in bright yellow light. I mostly stayed zipped
on the subject, having friends on both sides.
Even my own daughter claimed to see gold and white.
I applauded her for finding her own truth.
The dress was clearly blue and black.
Eventually, the creator of the dress confirmed the colors.
I and the rest of the true-hue seers smiled our smug smiles.
Eventually, the viral dispute was overtaken by another viral dispute
--Trump versus Hillary, or some such clatter—
as the scientists quietly ran their tests, posted their statistics,
and expounded theories about contrary eyes that saw gold and white
though the dress was clearly blue and black.
Laura A. Johnson
