My Father's Shoes - from my upcoming book

I'm still working on my next book but wanted to share this poem with you that will be in it.

My Father’s Shoes

By Terri Blazell-Wayson

I used to slip my tiny feet

into my father’s shoes

and practice walking down the hall

with my hand touching the wall.

I wanted to be like him.

I couldn’t wait until I’d grown

and fit into those shoes.

It seemed to take so long

but when I finally did, I realized

time had gone too fast.

The shoes were old now,

scuffed and worn,

broken in and broken down -

just like my father.

I was ashamed of them.

Years passed

while they sat waiting in my closet

until I, like my father,

became scuffed and worn.

The shoes no longer fit me; I fit them.

Once again, I slip my feet into my father’s shoes,

neither proud nor ashamed,

simply reconciled,

realizing he had done the best with what he had,

which was a pair of his father’s shoes.

We come into this world with nothing

and leave it the same.

But in between sits,

waiting;

a pair of our father’s shoes.