For Want of Shoes
by L. Jay Mozdy
Aright, I’ve got the rent, which leaves food and gas this month. I could ride the bike, if it’s nice out, but I can’t count on it. It would save at least five dollars, so there’s five. If I don’t eat as much I could get five more, maybe. Okay, so, ten dollars for shoes; but where to get shoes for ten bucks? I could save it for next month, which would double the money, but by that time, I will need socks, because walking around with this hole in my shoe is going to put holes in my socks. I can’t afford socks and shoes. I think Walmart’s got shoes for around ten dollars that might last a while; save my socks, at least.
Damn, I need coffee, that subtracts from the ten, which makes about six dollars for shoes; damn. I can’t get shoes for six dollars.
Maybe I can tape them. Scotch tape won’t stick for long, probably not through one day, much less a month. What If I wrap the tape around the entire shoe? No, that looks ugly; I can’t go to work with tape wrapped around my shoe.
I can just waste one pair of socks for a month and alternate sides of each sock to make four pair, essentially, out of one pair. When I develop a hole in one side, turn it, until the hole develops in the other side; then twist it half way between holes, maybe, then two more pair are made of that one pair. I doubt it will work for a month, but what else is there? Barefooted limp…
Is there any glue? There might be glue somewhere in the truck; no, I used it to fix the guitar. At least I’ll keep my sanity.
I could skip coffee for a month. I like coffee in the morning before work, speaking of sanity.
Damn, coffee; I think there’s laundry money left. Fifty cents; can I get coffee for that? I can’t get coffee for fifty cents. It is fifty cents, though; glue, no; decorative tape, no; is there a fifty-cent substance on the planet, no; damn coffee. I’ll just have to go without coffee.
Hey, the empty coffee can…right. Cut the bottom off, cut the top off, slice the can down the side, roll the thick cardboard out, trace my left shoe, cut the cardboard, slip it into the shoe, hole covered. Good to the last drop.
For want of shoes, I’ll buy coffee.
— — -// — — -
Then I met a man who had no where to go with no feet, right. — L.J.M.
