One of my favourite poems is about socks. Inspired by this poem (by Pablo Neruda) I have written my own version about a pair of boots . I mention is now as a week or so ago I ceremoniously burnt the boots - a moment of sadness & great gratitude.
Ode to a Pair of Boots
A friend gave me
A pair of boots
That she had brought for herself
But were not hers.
Two comfortable boots.
I slipped my feet into them
As if they were two cases
Made with pieces of adventure & fortitude.
Audacious boots,
My feet were two birds made of hide,
Two giant eagles
Cliff brown, shot through
With golden laces.
Two immense turtles,
Two wolves.
My feet were honoured in this way
By these heavenly boots.
They were so handsome,
For the first time
My feet seemed to me as unacceptable
Like two decrepit toads
Not worthy of the magical hide
Of those peerless boots.
Nevertheless, I resisted the temptation
To save them somewhere as schoolboys
Keep fireflies,
As learned men collect
Sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
In a gilded cage & each day give them
Finest nuggets & armfuls of fresh greens.
Like explorers in the forest
Who hand over the impossible unicorn
To scientists who coldly sacrifice it,
I stretched out my feet & pulled on
Thick socks & then the magnificent boots.
A shameless modification of Pablo Neruda’s “Ode to a Pair of Socks”.
My news boots (pictured above - Shires Stroud riding boot) are wonderfully comfortable & water-proof but they are new & it will take a while for them to become part of me like the old pair!
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