On the Invention of Shoes

by Stuart Dischell

I would like to shake the hand of the first person
Who shod the foot for protection against stones
And barbs, the snow, the heat of the ground, etc…

*

I think of the sandals of the legions and the importance of cobblers
When walking was the major form of transportation, and of the feet
Of thousands of pilgrims along the trails to Campostella.

*

And of our friend’s shelf along the wall just above the floor
Where he kept the ones he favored. He was a manly person
And they were oxfords and brogues and boots.

*

I walked around the city many times but found not
But what I sought among the processions:
What good fortune it is to live in an age of great shoes.

*

Innovators of sole and insole, lace and eyelet,
Vamp and upper, welt and medial, heel and tongue,
Sing to me of the open road!

STUART DISCHELL is the author of Good Hope Road, a National Poetry Series Selection, Evenings & Avenues, Dig Safe, Backwards Days and Children With Enemies and the pamphlets Animate Earth and Touch Monkey and the chapbook Standing on Z. His poems have appeared in The Atlantic, Agni, The New Republic, Slate, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and anthologies including Essential Poems, Hammer and Blaze, Pushcart Prize, and Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems. A recipient of awards from the NEA, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, he teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.