Cleaning Out The Closet Gathered all the old shoes collected over the years in the closet under the stairs: muddied rain boots, muddied dress shoes, penny loafers that could be arrested for vagrancy, flappy summer sandals with straps detached, button-up shoes that grandma's grandma wore to church on Sundays before grandma's grandma died and nobody went to to church anymore, motorcycle boots with nothing but stuffed newspapers left for soles, paten leather shoes that got grandma in trouble with the nuns at her first seventh grade dance, tennis sneakers in a house where no one ever played the game, took them all out back and stacked in a pile - made a bonfire that burned all day into the night to rid the house of long lost history - scrubbed the floors inside to wash away to mud, the dust, the dirt - but the footprints made by the feet that once walked inside those shoes remained - invisible - but there - impervious to fire wire brushes or scrubbing bubbles. Proximity I have learned that opposites attract how close peace resides to war love to hate blessings to curses joy to sorrow happiness to horror ecstasy to despondency life to death eternity to extinction how I spend most of my life somewhere in that short breath of no man's land in between. If Memory Serves I stop in bars walk the streets sit on doorsteps haunt the park wait at small tables in sad cafes look for hints or signs of you past or present fruitlessly when all the while you are just up the road across the boulevard occasionally watching me in one of your old favorite movies that you never allow your husband to see Of note: Al Ferber's latest book of poetry is out, "12 Miles From Nowhere", and can be purchased here~ I read it and it's a thoroughly enjoyable read. Main Page This site sponsered by