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The Long Walk

Roger Cowin

One day a man decides
to take the long way home
around the world.
Arriving several decades late for dinner.
his wife demands to know where he's been.
He explains he had been a lovely night
and needed to break in his new shoes
so he decided to walk home.
But he walked so far
he had to buy another pair
and break them in
and so on and so on
till it became somewhat
of a Homeric journey.

His wife tells him his dinner
is in the oven,
but it isn't very good after twenty years.
They go upstairs and make love,
which isn't very good either.
Her once young,
firm body has grown
worn and loose as an old shoe.
It's like making love
to a baseball mitt.

Later, he awakens to the moon
streaming its chatoyant light
across the room and his wife's
pale, haggard face,
sunken in sleep.
In the closet he discovers
a pair of shoes, never worn,
still in their box.
He sits on the side of the bed
and slips them on,
wriggling his toes around for fit,
takes a few cautious steps,
decides to go for a walk...

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