i am learning to love being barefoot again,
to feel the blades of grass between my toes.
i miss the days when my worst pain was the burning asphalt against my soles,
or a spur in my skin.
it is something i gave up long ago,
replaced flip flops with confining boots that suffocate.
it reminds me of the summer days of my youth,
running down the hot road to visit a friend
and playing tag in unkempt lawns.
there is a freedom to it,
to be able to touch up against the earth so explicitly.
a nakedness as well,
unguarded to the elements,
willing to get roughed up for the sake of enjoyment.
i look down and see blue veins that look like streams,
then i submerge them in the blue of a pool or an ocean and they blend in like camouflage.
little fish swim against them and seaweed brushes up on my legs.
i get shorter and shorter as i sink into the wet and squishy sand
until i wiggle myself free at last.
these days my feet rarely see the water or the light.
i kept them hidden away after i discovered self hatred
and the lonely safety of the indoors.
there is something so innocent about being barefoot in nature,
and it is an innocence i have lost.
it gives one the ability to be unashamed of the crooked or unsmooth parts of a body,
an ability most forget as they grow old.
i hope to obtain it once more,
and walk barefoot towards the future.
:;
i promise i don't have a foot fetish y'all!! this is just inspired by some hippie shit my aunt said about how being barefoot connects use to the energy of the earth or whatever. which like i don't know maybe it does i'm not a scientist but it did get me thinking about being barefoot because once i grew up, which kinda basically happened once i left florida, i started being barefoot less like even when i didn't have shoes on i always had socks. and when i was younger i was ALWAYS barefoot playing outside, my feet had gotten really well adjusted to burning gravel and stuff. now i'm being barefoot more because at my aunts house my socks get ruined since she always has spilled water on the floors lmao. but it's nice to be without socks or shoes and not be self conscious
