Friday's Whims of the Time Traveler 61.0: November 13th, 2007

Soles
by Belinda Roddie
 
The man wore old, brown shoes.

One pair was all he owned.

He had none in reds or blacks or blues,

No sneakers, boots with buckles grand

To leave noble prints where one used to stand.

One pair was all he needed,

One pair of shoes alone.

The man wore old, brown shoes.

One’s sole was coming off,

But soul and spirit it could not lose

On any road to Rome or Spain,

Each hill and field laid thick with grain.

One pair was all he needed

To trek each dale and loft.

The man wore old, brown shoes –

He did not look much better,

All whipped and lashed by winds enthused

And cloaked in relics of the path

That led to hard and gruesome tasks.

Yet one pair was unfleeting.

Yes, one pair for the weather.

The man wore old, brown shoes

Until he passed to twilight.

His eyes of blue were quite subdued

With a final peace worth waiting for,

And at the sound of the boatman’s horn,

The dark shoreline receding,

One pair led man to skylights.

Here are those old, brown shoes,

A symbol of man’s own,

His own endeavor to endure

All fire, but all of this ensures

A sense of what was needed:

One pair, and nothing more.

These shoes shall send him home.

The work you see here has not been edited nor altered since November 13th, 2007.