Van Gogh's Boots

Van Gogh’s Boots

by Kitty Jospe

A Pair of Shoes, VanGogh 
Credit

Only a pair of boots,

a man’s only pair of boots.

Leather aches into a stiff lip,

chafes the space

            mangled laces

     barely close —

peasant boots —

            artist’s boots —

mute mates.

One pulled up stark

watching the other

lip folded open

as if ready to speak.

A painting of boots,

one with a cow-thick tongue

hanging in the bleeding shadows

of a barn,

the other kicked off, 

crumpled in fatigue.

The caked spring mud says

one man has been out

in the world, walking.

One flung to the bare floor,

empty of sinew and bone,

the other standing upright,

a sentinel

watching over its mate.