Just Shoes

Today

I gave an old woman some shoes

just shoes

I didn't give her catalog to choose from

just shoes

Some old beaten up Nikes

with sweat stains from PE...

that happened to be sitting in the back of my car

but it seemed to have gone so far

to have meant so much

it touched her

it mattered in a way that I have never mattered before

Handing her those shoes made my heart soar

to have watched her walking in wearing a pair of

duct-tape bound, lay-around tennis shoes

that she must have worn for years

on it stains of old lady tears, of broken dreams

and countless fears

Toes protruding

 blackened by a hard life lived

but never fully thriving always diving away from the onslaught of failure

To know that now she walks with her feet fully covered

to know that they are made warmer

because I choose not be selfish

Maybe now she will feel a bit less helpless

Thanks to me and some shoes

just shoes

I didn't know it meant so much just to give

then i realized I didn't know how much it meant to live

To have shoes on my feet that were whole

to have socks beneath them, warming comfortable and privileged toes

Who knows

what life would be like for me

if I had never stumbled across a little old lady

with battered and tattered up shoes

Not even shoes

but the skeletal remains of what were once shoes

These moments are the clues

that help solve life's mystery

there is only way to live

it's to give