Shoelaces in water

I dragged my shoelaces through water, wading in the shallows and the deep.

For long I felt the weight of the rivers, in desperate wait like Pacey at the creek.

The mud and foliage all foamed from drainage chutes, my chucks stained with the pain of two autumns past.

I thought I tried, how i tried to lift those star signed boots! Months becoming years, how long did those waters last?

Too long and just enough. Too long and just enough! That’s right, I had to say it twice.

Because heart break and change, they come like that turbulent storm. With it the tornadoes and everything that were the foundations to your world…it just went.

But it’s the operative “were” and not “is”, that’s what finally settled.

So too did the skies and as the rains died out, droplets fading into them last tears, I felt a strength in my legs and in my feet.

My shoelaces dragged through the waters, out the shallows and the deep. I feel the mud splatter between each step, but here I still find my footing. Time will make firm what is slippery, and then the sun.

There is a reflection in the waters, bright and bold, and unwavering. It is something broken, and beautiful, whole and exemplarily ordinary. I see me!