BIG TOE
There was a foot that once walked numinous
But now lies on my couch dying of dysania
Furry hairy foot beatify with five toes
Nails on em like mistletoe
Dinky lilliputian four toes
One big toe with a lead role
Like John Lennon of the Beatles
One foot, one too many to drive a beetle
Petrichor ushered in the birth of the foot
Tom and Jerry they lived after
Schadenfreude but they hurt together
When big toe is injured they're immobilized
They mourn and pray for healing laughter
Same happens if any of the dinky toes get hurts
No beer no barm
It's like the assembly at Mr. Jone's barn
No Snowball. No Napoleon. No Animal farm
Just a foot in different shoes to keep warm
One morning on my cozy couch
Before foot hit the sack again
He was lost in zugzwang
Drake's Wu-Tang
Forever was playing micro-softly
On my #Lullaby playlist on my iPhone
I heard big toe speaking tranquilly
Nothing near mollifyingly
The dinky ones listening imperturbably
He quoted Benjamin Franklin, frankly
He said
"Tell me and I forget,
teach me and I may remember,
involve me and I learn."
He told the dinky ones how he'd led
Them for eighty nine years
How he not only led them
but mentored them
He involved them in everything he did
He said
"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us
nothing but the shape of the spoon."
He told them he didn't led them
By spoon feeding them
till they turn this old,
But led them by doable examples
He said
"No one learns as much about a subject
as one who is forced to teach it."
He was forced to learn how to walk before one
He taught that too to the dinky ones
When he failed they failed together
When he fell they fell together
When he stood they stood together
Walking, moving forward was
Only possible when they're in unison
Foot without toes is like shoelace without aglet
Foot is the metallic bond between the toes
Together they've toddled, waded
Limped, hobbled, staggered, stumbled
Lurched, tiptoed, strolled, ambled,
Wandered, roamed, meandered, rambled,
Strutted, swaggered, stalked, stumped,
Plodded, paced, marched, paraded,
Crawled, edged, crept, padded
Sneaked, prowled, slid, dashed,
Slipped, darted, jogged, scampered,
Scuttled, skipped, loped, lolloped,
Hopped, lunged, tripped, scrambled,
Hiked, trekked, paddled, pranced,
Frogmarched, teared, scurried, sprinted,
For this long
Astonished with all the verbs big toe used
Couldn't hold the "wow" in my mouth
Like in cascade it gushed out
Big toe scuffled and the five hit the sack
Immediately simultaneously
Mad at myself for intruding
Still proudly ashamed of myself today
That what I know about mentorship
And a bit of leadership
I learnt from my grand dad's wrinkled foot
And all Big Toe said that dawn sank in.
