Tattered Feet Poem by Alyssa Rieper

My toes have been jaded pink.
beneath the split flakes of skin,
rolled up on thick flesh,
they ache and bleed from tears
on the carpet’s multicolored follicles

I wonder what it would be like to walk on water

Would it feel like glass,
fragile and cool?
Would it be impressionable
forming around my bones like foam?
If my mouth went dry,
could I still drink from beneath my soles?

Red has dotted the ground below my feet,
the color of strawberries or ripe tomatoes

I think of my mother
and how she would offer a warm wet cloth
but she isn’t around,
and the kitchen is steps away