Seven Steps on a Sunny Sidewalk (poem) by Michael S. True on AuthorsDen

Seven Steps on a Sunny Sidewalk
by Michael S. True → (All Poetry by Michael S. True)
Rated "G" by the Author.

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(or: Greeting Someone Special at the Front Gate)
Seven steps I took. Seven steps Across, Not down Not up, Across That perpendicular plain… Fearlessly traversing That flat pedestrian egress, All the while Attempting to maintain A certain level of Equilibrium… I am particularly interested in Getting somewhere Today, Hopping and skipping my way As the balls of my feet Scuff the rough concrete surface. I balance on each bubble, Eying my place in space. The level of it all, Lying In the apex Of an ancient arc… A finger to the lips, One quick step, then another, Skillfully jumping The cracks and the lines, Etch-a-sketch knobs Form Rice Crispy squares. I must hurry, Must scurry Before this sunny sidewalk Melts beneath my sticky feet… Adrenalin pumps And I stumble on, My pace becomes a wider stride, A wilder side, Not to be ignored, Not to be left behind, This giddy school boy Pushes to the fore And it occurs to me… That this soft shoe shuffle- Tennis anyone exhibition Is taking me, And a’three And a’four Inches, feet, yards Forward. With grass sprouting up Next to my Sunny-side Sidewalk, You and the Buttercups Are getting That much closer… Meanwhile, White pickets And cascading honeysuckle Cast soft shadows Across my path. Ants scatter, Their strings untied. Avoid the dotted line, Procession proceeding, I am making good time, Good time… Five, six, seven Wait Heaven is right where I left it Right? Where you stand Tugging at the latch with one hand For that one long moment… Motionless, I pause, The shoes, The seven steps I took, The sidewalk, The warm sunlight, The feeling that I had finally arrived, Arrived… The gate opens. I greet you with a sideways glance, And an impish laugh. And with that - I leap Into your unsuspecting Eyes! Michael True 1-13-09 last edit 5-26-13

Reviewed by Michael True

Reviewed on May 28, 2013

Floating on cloud 9, as it were. This, a poem of boyish silliness, and the girl at the gate, she was a pretty one... M.True

Reviewed by Budd Nelson

a very heart warming write
budd

Reviewed by Ronald Hull

Reviewed on May 27, 2013

Simply entrancing!

While I didn't grasp the full meaning, I kept thinking about someone disabled who doesn't walk right but merely shuffles, trying to make the seven steps to the gate (to heaven?) Like the way I walked twenty years ago before permanently getting an electric wheelchair, when every walk was an adventure in falling and heaven was getting there without falling.

“I leapt into your unsuspecting eyes.” Leaves me with???

Ron