Only One Shoe

I was not designed to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. - Thoreau

the night calls me a bald-faced liar

its stillness tossing me into hell's campfire

but all is not dire

i guzzle the morning dew

inhale a sky with its hue of blue

take my place in life's queue

forgetting all that i once knew

hey, what's all the ado

after all, you can still walk with

only one shoe

Author's Note

“A man who has at length found something to do will not need to get a new suit to do it in; for him the old will do, that has lain dusty in the garret for an indeterminate period. Old shoes will serve a hero longer than they have served his valet—if a hero ever has a valet—bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make them do. Only they who go to soirées and legislative balls must have new coats, coats to change as often as the man changes in them. But if my jacket and trousers, my hat and shoes, are fit to worship God in, they will do; will they not? Who ever saw his old clothes—his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or shall we say richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.” - Thoreau