New Shoes For Mike and Molly

Millie Mable Millipede was worried by the news. Mike and Molly Millipede would soon need winter shoes. Their itsy, bitsy, tiny feet, until now free and bare, Were leaving cold and frosty foot prints almost everywhere. Winter soon would visit, with the ground all hard and white. A millipede not wearing shoes might be a dreadful sight. For all you ‘people’ children, buying shoes is just a treat. The reason for this being is, you only have two feet. You try one on and lace it up and if it's not too snug; The other shoe, is put on too, then tested on the rug. And if they fit, you may be sent, outdoors to run and play. Without one hundred stiff, new shoes getting in your way. The problem with all millipedes, a dilemma . . it is true, Is fitting one foot at a time, with one good fitting shoe. For if you have one hundred feet, all bare and black as soot; It's hard to figure out real fast, where each shoe should get put. And soon all little millipedes get bored and squirm about. A squirmy, wormy millipede can make a clerk a grouch. Were all the shoes kept in one house they'd fill the empty space. Out the back door, down the street; you'd find them everyplace. Hundreds in the attic and hundreds in the shed. Shoes peeking out the windows, shoes stacked beneath each bed. Shoes filling up the cellar and lining hallways too; And where would Millie find the room to keep her favorite shoes? Now comes another problem when you wear a lot of shoes: Keeping track of hundreds; there’d be some shoes you’d just loose. And the shoes need be like slippers, with no ties of any kind. For millipedes to tie each tie, would take far too much time. It would make them late for school, for lunchtime and for play. Tying shoes is how the 'pedes' would spend most of each day. They'd be behind in everything; why nothing'd come out right. They'd still be tying their last shoe at bedtime every night. To add to this, there comes another awful, dreadful thought. For safety's sake each lace need be tied in a double knot. When finally comes the time to tuck each little 'pede' in bed; Those double knots might make a mommy millipede see red. Millie Mable Millipede knew she was in the stew. Dealing with her children's feet was more than she could do. She thought a lot and then some more, until her brain felt dead. And then a bright, white light went off, in the left side of her head. She had the problem figured out and how to make it end. Her children's many feet would be all toasty warm again. Now Millie, Mike and Molly need no winter shoes at all, Since moving south to Florida, where they now grow strong and tall. Pale Moon Lagoon has now been picked, to run and jump and play. If you should choose to look around, you’ll find them there today. They live beneath the rocks and logs, their feet all bare and free. And when you have one hundred feet, that’s just how it should be. © 2015 Diane Lefebvre