My Father’s Shoeshine Kit
Whose Dad did this? No one I knew.
Tucked below his suits and tux, a cedar box
Stuffed with stained buffing cloths, cans with keys, a treasure box.
Redolent with wax, polish for all kinds of shoes
Black and white for nights of swing, patent leather shoes
For fancy country clubs and holiday gigs.
Folks watched my Dad, the band leader, his shoes shined for each gig.
He didn’t own many shoes. The shine gave them longer life.
The ritual was part of his working life.
First, the horsehair brush to shoo dust, then polish to hide the scuffs
The swish, swish of soft cloth in rhythm to remove all scuffs
He buffed until his shoes shone, slid in with his shoehorn,
He left in the dark to front a band with plenty of jazz and horns.
Whose Dad did this? No one I knew.
Tucked below his suits and tux, a cedar box
Stuffed with stained buffing cloths, cans with keys, a treasure box.
Redolent with wax, polish for all kinds of shoes
Black and white for nights of swing, patent leather shoes
For fancy country clubs and holiday gigs.
Folks watched my Dad, the band leader, his shoes shined for each gig.
He didn’t own many shoes. The shine gave them longer life.
The ritual was part of his working life.
First, the horsehair brush to shoo dust, then polish to hide the scuffs
The swish, swish of soft cloth in rhythm to remove all scuffs
He buffed until his shoes shone, slid in with his shoehorn,
He left in the dark to front a band with plenty of jazz and horns.
Whose Dad did this? No one I knew.
September 2024
Amy Haddad is a poet, nurse and educator who taught at Creighton University in Omaha, NE for 30+ years. Her poetry has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Janus Head, Journal of Medical Humanities, Touch, Bellevue Literary Review, Aji, Oberon Literary Journal, Abandoned Mine, Rogue Agent, Rinky Dink Press, Intima, Red-Headed Stepchild, and several anthologies. Her chapbook, The Geography of Kitchens, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. Her first poetry collection, An Otherwise Healthy Woman, was published by Backwaters Press, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press in 2022. An Otherwise Healthy Woman won first place in the Creative Works category of the American Journal of Nursing Book Awards 2022.
Art: Kelly Cressio-Moeller, Childhood Faultlines. Mixed media: acrylic, ink, paper, mica flakes on basswood panel, 2023.