poem: footsteps

walking along the seashore

walking back again

alone

seeing my footsteps

over and over again

every day

every year

seeing how they go straight

seeing sudden trips as the foot hits pebbles

the sand making little mounds near the toes

big ones at the trips

knowing them

by heart

suddenly seeing other footsteps beside mine

for some time

not knowing the faces

the bodies

the legs

the toes

just the footsteps

staying not long enough for me to know them

one from the other

as i know my own

and then his footsteps

which stay long

and i begin to see the trips

i begin to understand them

to recognise the pattern of the mounds when they trip

knowing it as i know my own

beginning to

and then walking together

towards knowing them even better than my own

maybe

some day

and then a face

and a body

and legs

toes

eyes

which see my footsteps

along his own

and says

“whose are those?”