These Old Boots

I picked up new boots in Maine in ‘76

Clean leather and heavy braided laces

And we trudged all over New England and

traipsed her wilderness and her rocky coast.

Through mighty pine forests

and through trickling streams and to

wondrous waterfalls.

Then we moved back to Delaware and we

made our way along the beaches and boardwalks.

Tromped in old family coal mines and anthracite tunnels.

We labored on an immense horse farm in Pennsylvania,

through dung and fields avoiding pitchforks and clomping hooves.

Trekked through the southwest desert,

rock climbing through the grandest canyons.

When came the flood in North Dakota,

I said, “Save those boots!”

Since, they have hung around

while we walked through more snow and sleet and ice than I ever could have imagined.

And they accompany me on

visits to my grandchildren.

Now, these boots are scraped and cracked

and are losing their tread.

But these old boots have been places.

*   *   *

And they are gonna take me through the March For Our Lives

event on Saturday, March 24, come snow or high water.