Poetry
Torturous Shoes
Barbie doll, your feet were destined
for those sky-high heels,
extremities so arched and ever bending,
but plastic feet
as dainty as yours are
have no nerve endings.
And Cinderella, though used to
hopping around fireplace cinders,
still you danced all night in shoes
made out of hard-core glass,
no wonder you kicked one off,
such tortures aren’t inflicted
on most members of the royal class.
As a child, I stood in
ballet shoes en pointe,
no matter how much lambs’ wool
I stuffed to pad my toes,
it paid a later toll
on my arches and knee joints.
Today my feet feel best
while bare in sunny pools or
beachy sand,
I’m more like Salacia*
than Cinderella,
and even when in Barbie pink flip-flops
those times I hit the street,
my feet will lead me still to water’s edge,
instead of sporting high heels on concrete.
*Salacia: goddess of saltwater and wife of Neptune
Cynthia Gallaher
Cynthia Gallaher, a Chicago USA-based poet, is author of four poetry collections, including Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs and Spices, and three chapbooks, including Drenched. Her award-winning nonfiction / memoir / creativity guide is Frugal Poets’ Guide to Life: How to Live a Poetic Life, Even If You Aren’t a Poet. One of her poems will be sent on NASA's manned flight to the south pole of the moon later this decade. Her poem in this issue, ‘Torturous Shoes’, is part of a poetry chapbook manuscript-in-progress about fashion and fragrance with the