A Two Centipedes' Story Poem by Stefania Paluzzi

What about lending me a penny?
The first foot.
Can you lend me a penny?
The second foot
and so on, four six eight ten
and what not

the question running from foot to feet

Then the other one: use?
The first foot.
Use and what for?
The second foot
and so forth, eleven thirteen fifteen
and on

the question as a useless answer
-lacing up the shoes
even thousands
odd thousands
-two living beings lost around
on the room wall
aiming to a not well known tour, no claim maybe

who knows
I think that's the very sense of man:
so just earlier
before the cat might do
I stopped them

something wrong in that fate of theirs
really unsuspectingly
I killed the two by my slipper truth.