Two old men, four brown shoes
Standing together, at the end of the year
Long roads travelled, changing hues
Silver grey above and soles in gear
To walk different byways, but not lose
The chance for the shoes to dance, here
And there, now and then, the muse,
The melody maker, draw near
The same but different
Took long for the afferent
To mingle with the efferent
Brown shoes showed their intent
Right shoe, greenish-red, family from Ireland
Driven out long ago by famine
Chords and quavers in hand
Orchestrated the filming
Went to Hollywood, scores for the band
Platinum smelted from the mine
A disk of the famous land
Before retiring from the front line
The same but different
Across Irish Sea and Atlantic they went
To Salem, where their styles were sent
Brown shoes showed their intent
Left shoe from Dylan’s land
Unaware of the power of rhyme
Forty years holding Liverpool’s hand
Rekindled hiraeth, father’s mime
Took to the Carolinas, where demand
For regeneration came at the time
The brain remodeled and
Prose turned to verse in its prime
The same but different
Words and notes to pay the rent
Creating listeners where’er they went
Brown shoes showed their intent
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, December 2016
