Precious Footwear for Someday Traveler
By: J.L. Littlejohn
Tags: Poetry, Loss, Young Adult Fiction, Fiction, Short Story

Free Verse Short Story (YA)

Precious Footwear for Someday Traveler

Measuring up to Mother

Mesmerized –eyes held by lovely pair of costly shoes

every night.

ㅤ ㅤ[smooth, most delicate leather, a skin

ㅤ ㅤthat bends with every whim. color like

ㅤ ㅤripe fruitㅤ–a tart peachㅤ–a soft melon

ㅤ ㅤawaiting the teeth, the palate. sweetness

ㅤ ㅤshe could almost taste against her tongue

ㅤ ㅤ…each shoe a sundaeㅤtopped in slender

ㅤ ㅤbow of grosgrain ribbon.]

Not new. Never ever worn, a gift she saw as such…

perfectionㅤshe can only stare in quiet breathy sigh

wish-filled to girlish daydream.

ㅤ ㅤ[so thin, their handmade wafer-sole with

ㅤ ㅤslightest heel, a foot might feel the journey

ㅤ ㅤbelow each destined stepㅤ–each and every

ㅤ ㅤtwirlㅤ–each and every curl to toe before

ㅤ ㅤtheirㅤskyward ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ A ㅤ ㅤP

ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤㅤE ㅤ ㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤㅤS

ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ L

ㅤ ㅤa girl/a bird… flight of dreaming feet in

ㅤ ㅤgrand jeté.]



Nearly every afternoon, addressed just to her, arrives

a postcard. Only yesterday, after reading, she spent

her better part of evening-dreamㅤfrivolous,ㅤdancing.

Tiring all –the shoes & the girl– near to exhaustion…

ㅤ ㅤ[ …a New York ballet legged playfully thru

ㅤ ㅤ137 postcards –Central Park seen bursting in

ㅤ ㅤeffervescent bloom. each & every card ended:

ㅤ ㅤComing home soon, never to fret my Dearest One.

ㅤ ㅤsigned in large blue “M” beside a lipstick-kiss

ㅤ ㅤan always pastel.]

She checks her hands. Below each tender-pink nail.

Making obsession certain all are clean. Lifted –as if

too fragile in glass– dainty, deep apricot Flat coaxed

out of tissue …out its box. Passing ㅤ waft beneath

her nose, of heavenㅤa briefest whiff ㅤexposed… to

leather, like an angel’s blush, with faint and familiar

scent in old tearose.

ㅤ ㅤ[Paris. she is lost in Paris. as it is spring and

ㅤ ㅤblossoming Paris is where young hearts go

ㅤ ㅤ…to be lost or found in Love. she read that in

ㅤ ㅤa book “too old for her” …told so, in smiling

ㅤ ㅤreprimand by her Mother.]

Gently, with the unburdened skin on a young palm,

she buffs the slightly rounded toe into a shoes pride,

its rightful satin glow… as her secrets come whisper:

ㅤㅤ[one day, Paris. she promises to leather soul.

ㅤ ㅤLondon for it rains, Lisbon for our stroll, on to

ㅤ ㅤMilan for shopping. sashay in Venice for leisure’s

ㅤ ㅤlunch in a gondola. precisely as was told to her — ㅤ

ㅤ ㅤshared, sworn promise… Mother reminding the

ㅤ ㅤtimelessness of a classic Flat can take a young

ㅤ ㅤwoman anywhere.]

Tiny bird in her anxious breast, a heart as wings, beats

faster and faster ㅤshe slowly slides, though knowing it

insufficient foot… hope, into tempting shoe.ㅤSomeday.

“Someday” her wistful answer for her still-too-young.

ㅤ ㅤ[one day, Paris… she vows again to a

ㅤ ㅤmother’s token of promise. one day

ㅤ ㅤshe will grow into love’s last given gift.]

This is a story-poem about a young girl to be read by young girls. It isn’t meant to be the story of a broken world beyond that young broken-heart to a lost mother. Our world has become a more cruel place, of late. A harder place to understand those puzzling choices made by others. All I can say, rather, all I can ask …is that you wear a mask. Wear. A. Mask. Everywhere. Show you care that the world is suffering. Find your strength in the wanting to be a part of its cure. It is so very difficult to understand such contradicting views toward the welfare of others, toward the science. Do not let exhaustion take away that gift that is your humanity, as has been somehow forfeited by others. My Dearest Ones, dream of travels one day …when we’ve again grown into them. ❤ J

©jef littlejohn 2020