A Shoe for Tying
When learning to tie,
You should give it a try
On a carefully chosen shoe.
The shoe should be new,
Preferably blue,
Extra large too,
Not belonging to you.
The shoe should have laces,
And never make faces
When fingers go places
There shouldn’t be spaces.
Its tongue must not fight
Even if you should bite
While pulling it tight
With all of your might.
Its toe must not tap
To your shoe-tying rap.
It should sit in your lap
And take a nice nap,
Though it might feel a whap
As its strings flip and flap.
The shoe must sit still
No matter how shrill
You scream with the thrill
Of tying it.
© 2012 Elizabeth Ehrenfest Steinglass, all rights reserved
I wrote this in response to this week’s Monday Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect. (The link is on My Blog List.) It’s a skeltonic verse named for the poet John Skelton. The idea is to keep the same rhyme going until it runs out of steam. It was fun, and I definitely want to try it again.