Best Soles Poems
my shirts and shoes
are wearing out -
and they tell me
I am too
I patch and glue
to make them whole -
but fail
to make them new
I have holes in my soles
and frayed treads on my edges -
but manage
for the most part to get through
until one day
they say
it will all fall apart
hopefully all at once
I pray
skeptical swollen soles
tracing dark toes
on vying veins
of tactic trains:
lofty lousy limbs
etched in ink
drastic dances dripping
on seeps scrunching
in jumpy jolly
mystic melody birthed
embroidered with will
virtuoso concerto crunching
sumptuous soles stretching
la-de-da limbs lurching.
19:12:29:09:27
Musicians played classics as condemned marched under “ARBEIT MACHT FREI.”
Losing their “SOLES” and “SOULS” the future options for each gassee!
For every pair of empty leather “SOLES” you see,
they took a lovely “SOUL” away from you and me.
They also took their hair, gold teeth and skin,
piled them all up, then started over again.
Experimentation without permission gave modern medicine lots of cash,
the line perpetually kept moving with dogs, guns and the heavy lash.
Imagine screams coming from showers that NO ONE cared to hear,
“ZYKLON B” poured in from above, the dead dragged out the rear.
Even today there are those that say it never, ever evolved,
though a despot once told the world, it was a “problem he solved!”
We’ve all seen the pictures, that wasn’t a vacation passenger train,
Muster “LEATHER VOICES,” whose SOULS cry out “NEVER AGAIN!!!”
*”arbeit macht frei,” (work will set you free). The internees had to march under that
infamous sign upon arrival at Auschwitz. Poem for Leather Voices contest.
The smell of leather,
Stirs the Auschwitz warehouses:
Leather reminders.
___________________________
Inspired by the Auschwitz Shoes
Apex of mute dreams,
Rise above abandoned floors:
Pyramid of shoes.
___________________________
Inspired by the Auschwitz Shoes
“Soil Of Your Soles”
Descending to the darkness beneath the dirt we call Earth
Disappearing from the eyes that asked so many questions
Becoming forgettable as if my life never existed at all
It’s nothing new to feel alone for I have been my entire life
Lowering myself into the vast abyss unknown to those without
Securing my dark box surrounding every inch of my being
No longer struggling to survive rather relishing life after
Here no one can hurt me or ignore these blue eyes begging for a hand
Under the world of anger and war the peace is undeniable
Created to suffer by the hands of God I now live in eternal darkness
Pleasure of the loneliness I felt while lying in the green grass above
I now have the same feelings but with a smile underneath the crumpled ground
So here I lay beneath your feet not feeling your steps break me into dust
No longer breathing in your hatred nor pretending to be happy
I have succumbed to the darkness that has always pulled me towards it
I now embellish my everlasting life beneath the soil of your soles
Warm leather once danced on happy feet
Now cold and still abandoned by the wall
Lovers strolled along moonlit paths
The pairs now long gone into the past
Children played joyfully in the park
Those shoes are carelessly tossed
Young and old marched to their death unshod
Leaving behind empty soles heaped high
I just can’t find the words,
To ease the pain you feel.
Please know that you are not alone,
And somehow time can heal.
My heart, how it breaks for you,
As tender teardrops fall.
We may never have the answers,
To understand it all.
When everything around you crashes,
The roots of faith are tested.
Yet, beneath a devastated land,
The seeds of love are rested.
Once again, to rise, and be reborn,
New life and hope restored.
May Jesus hold you now,
The one who truly knows.
Our Lord and Savior,
He’s been there,
Fragile hearts and souls enclosed.
The pain and hurt you feel now,
So few have ever known.
He knows the feeling,
He bears the scars,
My friend you’re not alone.
I too, have walked in shoes you wear,
The path of thorns unfolds.
His footprints will alone remain,
He carries kindred “Soles”.
Diamonds are so cheap
only the excessive greed
of man, his profit
create a shortage of such,
gullibility a joy!
© Harry J Horsman 2013
whether you'll write just one address
on the road never guessed. When would it
raises sharp pointed exactly
on bare soles
this was still yesterday
we stand in the midst of the fire
you ignite. Your anger
so that wouldn't leave the rest
when the morning we completed
let's play at the end of the ragged
childhood. Running into the sky cracks
and this mouth you brought
couldn't told a thing as a mark
it should
has removed
when we were stuck in the road number
that never was
let's make a night the orange
before you pull me from the calendar numbers
embark on a journey of the same
which always ends up being the carcass
in an ambush pointy under bare soles
that never seem to get clean
even as I scrub you with gravel and
spittle you daily with complaints
you are content to knead the dirt
rejoice in it even every step
a sloppy kiss to newton
who ignored you
and courted an apple
but no matter these skies
of reaching hands and gaping mouths
it suffices to remember
they once joyously suckled on
you were love bathed softly
after the long dusty road
and sweetened with oil
I won't forget the old ways soles
held the string as we swept the sky
When they heard the drone of the jets
They knew it was time to hide
And find a safe place to escape the threat
They knew they'd soon hear explosions outside
Despite the war and its destructive sting
They still did everyday things
like going shopping, doing chores
Just to survive one day more
It wasn't long before the jets came again
To deliver their explosive pain
Some had no hiding place to choose
And falling from the sky, came two pairs of shoes..........
In a world that touches my soles like a lost whisper,
I wander through realms where light is a never-ending rainbow,
And I wish to rise with the sun in its golden carousel,
To become a ray dancing on the edges of eternity.
I see the white foam, a bridal gown wrapped in blue waves,
And I wish to tie my soul to the edge of an unspoken dream,
To float upon the sea of the unknown, like a thought lost on the horizon,
To disappear like a shooting star and be found as a memory.
I see the black sky, a velvet cloak adorned with the silver moon,
And I wish to pitch a tent on the land of boundless shadows,
Where my echo would be a symphony of honey and wind,
To be viewed as a portrait that births new universes with each gaze.
I wish for someone to see me, to witness my paradox,
To understand me without knowing me, to seek me in the secret of a dream,
To feel me without touching me, to be light caught in time,
In a universe where I am more than the shadow of a setting desire.
Yesterday I saw my worn out sole
The blue shoe has been housed in a bag of dust for long
I packed it like an old gift
And followed the path to the cobbler
But times have changed
Mr old lanky cobbler no longer mend soles
'I have a new calling', he told me in his cracking voice
'Soles no longer feed my pocket'
'I'm now in the business of harvesting souls'
'It is a heavenly calling, which my pocket whispered to me'
He took me to his old workshop
And I saw the new renovation
Rosaries now sit on the wooden wall threads once adorned
Battered shoes and abandoned bags no longer lay on the ground
My old cobbler no longer work on soles
He is now a man who hearkened to the voice of his pocket
Once a sole mender, now a soul harvester
Look familiar
Where you started from
Shoes laced you up
Made you come
Walking unknown streets
Stepping with future's feet
Mapquest to different times
Memories calling out
Like weathered chimes
Courted future and past
Strolled in the present
Shadowed footprints cast
Changed all directions
That will always last