Red Doctor Martens

John Rutherford

July 21, 2024

I moved two months ago and tossed

my years-old pair of combat boots

Doctor Martens, cherry-red, lost,

thrown away with no excuse.

The soles had flown long ago,

rubbed smooth by my cripple’s limp,

I suppose that just goes to show

you can be both punk and gimp.

I learned to ladder-lace with these,

a clumsy first attempt at cool,

struggling at it, despite two degrees,

just shows what I learned in school.

I’ll miss the familiar feel and weight,

the heavy, plodding shuffle-step

even though I was always late,

I’ve never really had much rep.

Slid them off my aching feet,

said thanks, consigned them to a rubbish heap.

John Rutherford is a poet writing in Beaumont, Texas. Since 2018 he has been an employee in the Department of English at Lamar University.