Death of a Pair of Shoes

Tags

humour, parent, photography, poem, runners, shoes

There are moments when I feel like a “bad parent”, even though I had no way of knowing…I received a note from Little Guy’s teacher in his agenda. The note said “Please buy new indoor shoes. I think he has outgrown/worn them out. O.K. Thank you!” He read me the note in the car on the way home…when we got home he showed me the evidence. If a picture is worth a thousand words…

 

These shoes do not owe us a thing – he’s had them over a year, unlike his outdoor shoes, which usually last 3 months…max! So after a busy day, karate lesson, and supper, I ran to the Mall to see what I could find…and had success! As I was standing in the shoe aisle, looking down, the irony sunk in. The shoes I was wearing, my beloved runners who were faithful to me when I was pregnant and couldn’t reach down to tie the laces, that walked the city streets when I first moved away from home…no longer owed me anything either. I have had them for well over 10 years.

Both reminded me of a poem I found in high school and shared as a joke with my brother, who at the time was also wearing a pair of shoes that had lived long beyond their time. So to the shoes that have journeyed with us – I bid you adieu (well, at least Little Guy’s shoes)

Death of a Pair of Shoes by Jorge Guillen

They’re dying on me! They’ve lived
Faithfully, Christian
Servants honoured
And happy helping.

And pleasing their master,
A tired traveller
Ready to quit
For peace of sole and foot.

These soles know. They know
Step by step long rambles
And wet days, floundering
Among slop and cobbles.

Even the colour drains
From sad skins
Which, plain as they were, livened
Some forgotten festival.

All this announces a ruin
I don’t grasp. The affliction
Of living corrodes honour
They’re running. Specters! Shoes!