Rock In My Shoe

You were the rock in my shoe

Sometimes irritating me beyond belief;

The rock that could never be found

Merely by removing the coverings on my feet.

You filled my receptive ears

With more corn than an Iowa farm-

I miss those silly, amusing jokes

And your keen observations,

Surely different than most folks.

You told me your story

Then pestered me until I wrote it in a book.

Ah! The things you caused me to do

The off the wall words you spoke

That gave my ego a dent,

Yet rarely said in anger

Never with malicious intent.

Then one morning I awoke

To find you no longer there-

Like a puff of smoke

You vanished into the clear air.

All that remains of you

Are memories and your last joke.

This morning, I walked barefoot

Down a gravel path

To feel the stones scrape against my feet

Trying to capture fleeting memories

Before they, like you are gone.