Old Boot

OLD BOOT


I will go with the boot
into distances
the long haul through life

The boot will be with me
in summer mud,
on mountain trail,
through winter mist.

It will hold me
like a mother holds her child
and I will be warm and safe.

The boot will never wonder
of arrival,
for it knows the worth of journeys.

There is never a need to ask
what the boot knows.
It speaks in footprints,
summits, departures:

the rapture of passage,
the humility of mission.


Richard Smyth

Posted over on Anabiosis Press