Consider the Shoe
By Audrey Jolly
Call me Lefty.
I’m the left tennis shoe on your foot.
Yoo hoo! Down here. Could you please lend an ear?
It’s quite a hard life when I’m just kissing dirt.
But I am a shoe, and a shoe will be true whatever you do.
But for now, let’s take a look at what I do.
And kid, I don’t mind telling you,
you’re such a heel!
How would you feel to have such weight upon your sole?
Downtrodden. Forgotten. And having no say
in where you are taken and where you are going—
day . . . after day . . . after day
(as with each passing moment your groove is worn away).
But I’m still a shoe . . . and a shoe will stay true . . . whatever you do.
So, I’m here tied in knots with a sock in my face.
Could you spare just a moment to maybe give me some thanks?
I’m a shield to your heel, and I yield to your will.
I’m your true best support. I’m your runner! Your skipper!
So why, when you want comfort, am I traded for a slipper?!
A Donald Duck slipper! Dare I say, what a quack!
Do you want me for your enemy? You’d better think about that.
Ever thought of what would happen if I went on strike?
Yeah, in your math class in front of that cute boy you like?
I could, as you know, simply loosen my laces,
trip you up, and catapult you down the nearest staircases!
Ha, ha! I’m a shoe, but I’m done being true!
Now at last I’ll prevail! The time has come to rebel.
Well . . . I would, except . . . that right shoe . . .
Aw, shoot, she is kind of cute.
And how could I quit when we make a perfect fit?
So thus I remain: I am a shoe. And I will stay true whatever you do.
Audrey (then Audrey Madsen) wrote this poem in 2011 for a high school poetry slam. It took first place.
If one of your shoes could talk, what would it say? Would it be mad at you? Why? Why not?
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