Operation Moonboot Starts Again Poem by Margaret Alice Second

Fashionable moonboot and I might part company
soon, sonar tomorrow determine whether healed
ligaments will allow me to sleep without a moonboot
on my left foot, putting an end to the fight every night
to position moonboot on top of the duvet, under the
duvet, getting caught in the sheet, pillows under and
around and next to my leg to support the heavy foot

The pressure too much - loosening the Velcro, then
conscience interferes and I duly tighten it again, the
soles of my foot burning and feeling uncomfortable
and I open the front part of the shoe but keep my heel
digging into the sole until that is uncomfortable too,
after two desperate struggling hours I'm perspiring
profusely and my moonboot relationship turns bitter

Verging on an angry divorce - but I get up again, tie
a handkerchief over the front of my foot to cover sore
broken skin and pull on my sock, falling asleep from
sheer exhaustion until my beloved slides into bed like
a clinging octopus waking me so operation moonboot
starts again…

[25 November 2014]