Shoe Stories

A Poem by Colleen K.

Growing up, 

It was common to go through different shoes. 

This made sense to me. 

It wasn’t as though I had imagined myself  

Walking at my high school graduation 

In the same pair of neon pink converse 

That I had worn on the first day of kindergarten. 

Sometimes my style changed, 

So that the same pair in which I had once treasured, 

Became unattractive to me. 

So, I would give them away

To someone else who wanted them. 

But other times my feet grew so large 

That the same pair that had once been a perfect fit,

Left me with blisters on the short walk home from school, 

And a noticeable pain 

Every time that I tried to move forward. 

My mother would decide that these had to be donated 

To someone who could still make use of them. 

Even if I wished that that person could have been me, 

Reluctantly, 

I would hand them over. 

As I got older, 

My feet stopped growing.

Yet suddenly I was losing more shoes than ever before. 

Some would disappear so quickly 

That it would take weeks for me to notice that they had left. 

And by then, 

They would belong to someone else 

Who didn’t take them for granted, 

Someone who noticed right away

When they stopped showing up. 

I had a few pair that fell apart  

While I was still wearing them. 

I had developed a bad habit of dragging my feet as I walked, 

And I’d never bothered

To take better care of them. 

There was a period in time when this made me angry, 

As pairs of shoes came and went

In all kinds of ways, 

Whether I wanted them to or not, 

I couldn’t stop them from leaving me. 

So I would yell when they wouldn’t stay, 

Before remembering that shoes

Are not meant to remain in one place. 

They were shoes, 

And they were made to move forward. 

After being away from home, 

I looked inside of my closet and was confused

As I couldn’t recall when every last pair had left, 

And been replaced by another 

That I didn’t recognize. 

It was then that I realized how much I missed a lot of my old shoes, 

And wished that I could have done things differently, 

Maybe if I had just picked up my feet... 

Or remembered them after gym class... 

Then they would still be here. 

I wish this were the case 

Because I haven’t gotten used to my new shoes yet, 

And sometimes they feel so unfamiliar  

That I don’t wear them at all. 

But I can’t walk barefooted, 

And I miss my old shoes.