Stepping Out

I was really honored to join The Cobalt Season for their DC and Baltimore shows, and had a lot of fun reading some of my recent attempts at poetry. A couple of people asked after this one:

Shoes

the quickest way to tie your shoes
would be with two overhand knots
Secure. Simple. Permanent.

but then, we’d need to wear them in the shower
and to the beach
shoveling snow and cleaning the floor
we’d need to feign ignorance
while they got stinky and moldy

we’d need to wait
until our soles wore down
until our toes pushed through the fronts
until they finally, mercifully,
fell off

then we’d search for clubs
where we’d decry these things known as “shoes”
was it the shoe itself, or our understanding of it?

we’d sit around barefoot
drinking beer and sorting through our baggage
detoxing and re-toxing again
complaining about our lives
the way our feet are deformed
our stride may never be the same

expatriates in captivity
anti-fundamentalist fundamentalism
a hip new brand of shackles

So let the wind blow between your toes!!
Be loosed of those laces, Sister!
Get you some flip-flops, Brother!
Walk free, walk free.