Poetry | Childhood Memory | Good Vibes Club

I Am From Barefoot Summers

Where I am from in free verse

I am from barefoot carefree summers sitting on the front porch after the last day of school excitedly taking off shoes and socks tentative first bare steps onto a sidewalk warm from afternoon sunshine running to new green grass soft and cool my feet and I are free until September

I’m not sure if this was my mama’s rule or something originating from an old wives’ tale, but I was not allowed to go barefoot until school was out for the summer. In Georgia and Alabama, where I grew up, going barefoot was a rite of childhood in the summer. Some kids were allowed to go barefoot everywhere, but I had to don shoes and socks whenever we left home. I’m not sure what has changed, but I rarely see kids going barefoot these days.

I would still love to kick off my shoes and walk in the grass or in the soft sand of the sugar-white beach 15 minutes from my home. However, I am a diabetic with severe neuropathy (lack of feeling; as in I’ve stepped on a nail and didn’t know it until I removed my shoe to find a very blood-soaked sock), and a somewhat rare condition known as Charcot Arthropathy. For these reasons, it is dangerous for me to walk around without shoes for protection and support. And I don’t mean pretty shoes! As my endocrinologist gently said to me, “I am afraid the days of you having Cinderella shoes are in the past.” So, I wear shoes, even at the beach and in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the nice things about being in my 70s is not really caring about what people think. I just blissfully march right into that water and bob up and down with the waves without a care in the world! Grateful to still have my feet!

But I do miss feeling the sand between my toes and the cool, soft grass under my feet.

A note about my header image:

You may find it curious that the little girl (representing me!), is wearing a dress while playing in the grass. I grew up in the 1950s. Little girls did not wear pants or shorts to school back then. We wore dresses. Since the poem takes place as soon as I arrived home on the last day of school, I still had on my dress.

My poem is also in response to I Am From prompt, from Sheri Jacobs , passed along to me from my poetic mentor, Carolyn Hastings. And, as I learned from Carolyn, this prompt is evergreen! I wanted to share my poem with Trisha Faye’s Good Vibes Club, hoping some of the pub’s poets would like to join in the fun! Please find the prompt details here –

A special thanks to Trisha Faye for providing a fun pub and community to hang out! I appreciate you and the support you give to us writers.