Justin Hyde

these boots

have outlived
six pairs of laces
a wife
and the
banal affections
of seventeen other
wax
suitors.

they’ve seen me though
a suicide attempt
three minor stays in jail
and stints as
a door to door
vacuum cleaner salesman
and hired man
on a hog farm.

they were there
the day my grandfather
died on a hospice bed
from cirrhosis
of the liver
and the evening
my ex said
she was pregnant
and i tried talking her
into an abortion.

before that
they spent ten years
under my father
as a bug man
for presto x.

this morning
my three year old son
gets them
on his feet.

trudging
across the living room floor
of my apartment:

look daddy
look at me
i’m a big boy
just like
you.