They will say I love you
for your hippie cachet,
and oh,
that did draw me to you.
You are always
earthy,
expansive,
alternative.
If I wore socks
(handmade,
fair trade,
hemp
and organic cotton)
you would not look like sandals
on the feet of some old man
with white tube socks
or black dress socks
pulled up,
right up,
to his knees.
Someone once said:
I don't know why Birkenstocks
are such
hippie shoes.
Birkenstock
is just another big, evil corporation
oppressing workers
and polluting the environment
and besides
they're German.
As if that matters.
Yes,
even if you stepped on the backs
of Turkish gast arbeiters
and Holocaust victims
and climbed the carcasses
of slaughtered cattle,
trekked past a sludge
of your own making,
still I would wear you,
love you.
The first time I met you,
when the shoe clerk unwrapped you
from the
crisp,
white,
paper
and set you before me.
My wide,
wide,
wide as the ocean is
wide
feet
expanded into you
unrestrained,
unconfined,
unfettered,
unpinched.
I wear you,
I love you,
because you are the only shoes
that have ever
(ever)
fit me.
Inspired by a post by April at Married to an Addict.
Brilliant!
This is one for the ages -- awesome!
Hey, those are some of my relatives (Holocaust victims)and that even made me laugh hard.
U rock, chickie.
Love,
Scout
Hah! They are my relatives too! But this was so cute! I'm glad I inspired you - or should I thank Paris Hilton?
I know referring to the Holocaust is always dicey, and my friend Jay may remember when I was accused of calling someone an anti-Semite the last time I used it in my writing. But I figured (hoped) you all would see the comic exaggeration present in trying to hold a modern German-based corporation directly and presently accountable for the horrific actions of Hitler.
But I know old pains and hatreds from WWII linger too -- my grandmother nurtured a lifelong hatred... Before she came to America, after one of WWII's many battles, she found her brother's severed head in the street. I think of that moment when I hear news reports from Iraq -- sometimes I can't stand to listen.