My poor shoes the weight they cary

Enduring moves akin to loaded ferry

With strain they pull at stitched seam

The glue failing with silent scream

Faded and dirty, the pigment awash

Their texture rough no longer posh

Frayed laces once were pearly strands

Counting days until ripping in hands

The feet within swollen and callused

only saved by shoes materials ballast

The aches and throbs of mile sobs

Over curbs like logs chasing mobs

The urban sprawl of concrete crawl

Has punished their untrained brawl

Each forward step feble and shaky

They list as resolve becomes flakey

Their determination and stride reside

Within their dance of steps of pride

Chasing the stories of the unfortunate

Seeking to share words importunate

The pain of failing shoes is intense. After days pursuing stories and doing head counts, able to return to safe shelter and soft warm bed the throbbing pain is intense. A major concern noticed within the community is mobility. A functional pair of shoes and healed feet are vital to the recovery of these individuals. Many expressions have been shared regarding foot care.

Dedicated to the story chasers of Hearing The Homeless and the miles they walk, with their determined smiles as they empathetically talk to those who reside on the very streets they stalk.

Hearingthehomeless.org

Instagram.com/m.h.marie

Suggested/Related Writings:

Hearing The Homeless Collection

https://theprose.com/book/1660/hearing-the-homeless

Dear Applicant,

We regret to inform you that your Application for a Licence to Remain Terminally Self-Hating has been rejected.

Seeing that you have performed hundreds of thousands of loving and compassionate acts over the years, affecting people around the world with positive moments, no matter how small, we cannot offer you the applied-for License, in spite of the fact that you are fascinatingly human and have made many wonderfooly* cringe-worthy mistakes. In place of the License applied for, we are pleased to offer you a License To Forgive Yourself And Keep Moving Forward, herewith enclosed in pocket-size format. Please keep it near your heart at all times, and refer to it often.

Also included, as an additional consolation prize, is our free Invisible Wrist Tattoo that says “Stop,Think, Act” in our brand new Developer font. We recommend that you apply it immediately and glance at it whenever you’re feeling the urge to do something cringe-worthy from this moment onwards.

We wish you all the very best in your future endeavours. Please write to us again whenever the mood strikes, and we’ll see what we can do for you.

Sincerely,

Your friends and fans at

the Bureau of Universal Development (BUD).

*wonderfooly: /wun’ der foo lee/

Adv. with a wonder-inducing foolishness often regretted after the fact, clearly displaying one’s perfectly imperfect human quality.

#challenge #rejectionletter #self #selflove

Rippling tide tickled in

Foaming cream embellished

frothing the creature

embraced within

curiosity piloted me

toward sodden shape

kissed by eddies

bathed by ocean tears

dusted with cinnamon sand

bedecked by sea creatures

flecks of sea worn shells

I extended my hand

to brush off the grains

recoiled in horror

threw caution to wind

excised the seaweed

sheltering her nose

pale lifeless eyes

resigned to fate

abandoning life

fearing its pursuit

too titanic to swim

through her misery

tide flowed out

taking the flotsam

the dregs of her life

leaving no traces.

I wondered with pain

if she had drowned

but my pith

sank with certainty

suicide with the tide.

#suicide #SoddenShape #Challenge #StrongPoem