Still Life with Old Shoe by Neil Ellman

(after the painting by Joan Miró, 1937)

an old shoe
worn too many times
in long marches
in too many wars
worn through to its soul

worn through
in too many winters

it is food
when men chew
on the leather
of their despair

it is the way out
the only way

it is an ark
coming to peace
on Ararat

it is at rest
at last
on the stillness of
a table-top

Author bio:

Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey. He has published numerous poems in print and online journals throughout the world, as well as in five chapbooks. He frequently bases his poems on works of art, most often on works that are surreal and bizarre.