What Size Shoe

He asked, and I had 

to think about weight

At three twelve 

I needed twelve wides

but I had lost down

to two-fifty

and eleven and 

a half Ds would do

But I remembered a 

question my wife

sometimes asks

of blouses and skirts

“Do your shoes

run small?” I asked.

Not even sure how

one would know,

but tight shoes are

a big no-no —

Diabetes, and all

so I asked about socks,

visualizing socks who

could not process sugar

and thinking of the running 

of the shoes to a size, 

and how I don’t try for 

clever words: the ones

with back doors, tunnels,

overpasses and shortcuts.

I use standard English 

that plods along without 

Imagination. All the while

there are words running 

circles around it.

It ignores them like

a cow whisked at gnats 

and keeps grazing.

Funny the horses wear shoes

but cows are always

barefoot in the grass.

Now I wonder

do they shoe oxen

pulling carts on

cobblestones roads?

And if so,

do they run small?