Barefoot in the City

Take off your shoes.
Enter the temple.
Let your soles
touch the bare
earth.

Feeling your toes
grip at the gravel.
Let your soles
touch and be
earthed.


Sweaty feet slip
out of casings.
Grimy shoes
in dusty scattering.
Mucky toes
now stretch to breathe
and slip-slide
the smooth
marble floor.


Take off your shoes.
Enter the temple.
Let your soles
touch the bare
earth.


Pedicures
in pinky salons.
Soaking feet
in soft solutions.
Nimble fingers
tug at callus.
Gentle tools
scrape out the dirt.

Pampering toes
and spoiling feet.
Silken brush strokes
cool of cutex.
Sinking heels
in luscious towel
waiting just
beneath.


Feeling your toes
grip at the gravel.
Let your soles
touch and be
earthed.


Shoeless
on the pavement stone
the old man's feet
are caked,
in crusted mud
and days of dust
his feet have no regard -
who handles this man's feet,
I ask?
who cares
if they are scarred?


(c) Charlene Rajendran 1999