Snowy White Shoes
When your soul finds the right soles - such comfort!
Just whistle while you work…hum a merry tune. It won’t take long when there’s a song…Philip Kelsall - Frank Churchill (Disney’s Snow White)
I wore the wrong shoes,
and now – half way through
my shift – my snowy-white sneaker shod feet
ache. Oh, how they ache!
Not one happily whimsical whistle
while they work, heigh ho’s
flatlining with my flat arches.
Their song – not dwarfed
but silent, screeching ascending scales
of protest.
What works for collecting the mail,
admiring my ‘hood, or meandering market aisles
does not work
on labyrinthine linoleum hospital corridors.
Yet
while, yes, my feet are whining,
I am not. I wasn’t conscripted – unless
you count my heart.
I volunteered.
Just now – a patient moaning.
Help me, somebody help me.
Sprinting to her side, my soul
held her hand
even as nurses and aids
would have door-stopped my soles
at the threshold.
It was work
to limit myself to a prayer.
Such sweet relief, too –
the titanic utterly unsinkable comfort
of encountering a new calling.
Setting sail newly balanced,
adidas winged.
©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2022
About the Creator
Jenine Bsharah Baines
A poet. A seeker of Light. A lover of Mother Earth in all Her manifestations...especially trees. Trees sing, did you know this?
"My religion is kindness." Dalai Lama
"In the end, we're just walking each other home." Leonard Cohen
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Comments (1)
Your mind, girl. The way you write two stories(more?) at once. And so beautifully. Like this part: “Setting sail newly balanced, adidas winged.”