Indiana & Yoga Magazine Winter 2017 Issue 2 | Page 82

POETRY

Poetry

Oh , Feet !

I remember the beat of childhood : one foot , then two , when you hopscotched across the sidewalk after a rock .
And that year when my palms sweated holding my partner in the middle school gym , you traced the outlines of a new box . How you gained your cha-cha confidence , cut loose your own jitterbug snap .
And in high school , marching in my new dress shoes my dad bought for me and when I took them off to blisters , red and sore , he called you barking dogs .
O feet , 26 bones , 33 joints , 20 muscles , one hundred ligaments . Distant cousin to fin , you speak the alphabet of pleasure , barefoot in sand and sea ; then talk the math of engineering , toeing my lover ’ s side of the bed .
O my jaunty swingers , my forward thinkers , my shock absorbers , leaf rustlers , pencil-picker uppers , with you , I bear the weight of the ages . Even as I kick up my heels , and click in the air , you land firmly planted on the ground .
Do not become callous or flimsy as lace . Take me to that chocolate shop in town , to the gallery at the square , to the Jazz Kitchen on the avenue .
— Bonnie Maurer
BONNIE MAURER Bonnie Maurer , MFA , poetry , IU , is the author of the following chapbooks : Reconfigured , Finishing Line Press , 2009 ; Ms . Lily Jane Babbitt Before the Ten O ’ clock Bus from Memphis Ran Over Her , Ink Press , 1979 and Raintree Press , 1979 ; Old 37 : The Mason Cows , Barnwood Press , 1981 ; and Bloodletting : A Ritual Poem for Women ’ s Voices , Ink Press , 1983 .
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