{"id":2472,"date":"2007-03-22T18:02:09","date_gmt":"2007-03-23T01:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/?p=2472"},"modified":"2026-01-21T16:40:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T00:40:53","slug":"these-old-boots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/2007\/03\/22\/these-old-boots\/","title":{"rendered":"These Old Boots"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"photopost\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/60951725_d0c73df493_m.jpg\"><\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong>These Old Boots<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These boots were once fresh,<br \/>\na leather pair of strutting<br \/>\npeacocks flaunting<br \/>\nstraight laces in full plumage.<br \/>\nThey boasted proud soles,<br \/>\nlike granite; impervious<br \/>\nto water, stoic in heat<br \/>\nand cold. These centurions<br \/>\nmarched to conquer.<\/p>\n<p>Now the plumage, frayed<br \/>\nand faded, holds scuffed<br \/>\nsplit leather by a thread.<br \/>\nMile after mile erased<br \/>\nthe heels. They are failed<br \/>\nsentries against enemy<br \/>\npebbles and creeping rot.<br \/>\nThese wounded soldiers<br \/>\nwear the perfume of decay<br \/>\nwaiting to hike one last<br \/>\ntime into the shadows.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Kathryn Harper<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<br \/>\nFor <a href=\"http:\/\/poetrythursday.org\/\">Poetry Thursday<\/a>; from an exercise in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Poets-Companion-Pleasures-Writing-Poetry\/dp\/0393316548\/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1\/103-7742703-3563801?ie=UTF8&#038;s=books&#038;qid=1174609330&#038;sr=8-1\">The Poet&#8217;s Companion<\/a>. Photo by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/fedot\/\">Fedot Praslov<\/a>, used under the <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/2.0\/\">Creative Commons License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These Old Boots These boots were once fresh, a leather pair of strutting peacocks flaunting straight laces in full plumage. They boasted proud soles, like granite; impervious to water, stoic in heat and cold. These centurions marched to conquer. Now the plumage, frayed and faded, holds scuffed split leather by a thread. Mile after mile [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,28,16,215],"tags":[341,229,340],"class_list":["post-2472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aenigmas","category-humanities","category-nature","category-poetry","tag-old-age","tag-poetry","tag-service"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2472"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10620,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2472\/revisions\/10620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathrynpetroharper.com\/mindfullife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}