A Pair of Shoes by Vincent Van Gogh

What can be said of shabby brown isomers?

Is it always like looking in a mirror?

You who are not exactly twins but nearly.

At the neurological level the paths have been reversed

right brain, left foot, left brain, right foot.

What you two must have seen on your tandem journey…

Did you start off on the right one

and end up walking in another man’s?

Did you hear too often the phrase, “if the shoe fits?”

When did you learn to tie your own shoelaces?

Did you met an angry man who had no

shoes until he saw a man who had no feet?

Did you ever find out what it means when

the left shoe doesn’t know what the right is doing?

Did you follow the teachings of proverbs

and does the rule of ambidexterity apply?

If your old tongues could speak, would they

speak in palindromes like “Never a foot too far, even?”

Because Cinderella’s shoes were made to be of glass

she was never able to get her feet off the ground.

But you, ol’ boots of hardy leather were made

for working, made for living, made for the portrait.