Looking down,

my feet seem small…

      Well, almost …

just not quite big enough

for proper balance and stance.

But they have kept me

       ‘on my toes’…

as the saying goes.

They have run ahead

and fallen back.

They have chased after others,

and been chased after, by a few.

Quite often, they have

revealed my mood…

      an attitude,

that was better off  hid.

Reliably, they have both betrayed me,

     and saved me…

sometimes in the same day.

They carried me up steep mountain paths

i thought would surely do me in,

and across great white deserts,

where i hid them in burning grains of sand

wishing to be somewhere else.

As a child, my feet were my means

for jumping ropes and sticks…

and creeks, and cliffs

which overflowed into wide rivers…

coaxing me...

expanding my world…

      stretching it

to the end of the street and back…

i used my feet to stomp

crayfish from the mud…

and  splash in puddles after it rained…

And dance….oh how they loved to dance…

         to songs, both slow and fast.

Looking back,

i realize that my feet

have gotten me where i am

          right now…

And with age….comes wisdom…

(Hah!)

On the back side of this hill of life,

i have just begun to realize…

     just begun to understand...

there is a difference…

     a big… big… difference…

in simply stumbling…

and in falling down.