Wallabees

Shoes older than innocence, 
purchased at the prompting
of a man who took what he could
(long gone, both sins and saving graces 
returned to dust). Resoled by admiring cobblers 
("These are really good shoes," 
they gush, and it's not just shop fumes talking).
One, the victim of dog-love, 
aftereffects still visible 
but shoes are rarely scrutinized
quite that keenly, unlike the past. 
For that, we set up microscopes,
accomplishing both much and nothing, simultaneously. 
Protective pair on foreign soil, leathered lookouts
in a world of stones that might otherwise have  
gouged as deeply as betrayal.
I'm taller now, larger everywhere in a larger 
world, grown up, grown to understand, 
a little, why things happened as they did.
The man is gone.
The shoes still fit.

(c) Ellen Gillette, 2012


Seriously, Clark's should feature me in a commercial or an ad for their Wallabees. I got these in high school, which was at least 37 years ago, probably more. That's got to be some kind of record for longest continuous service by a pair of shoes!