You made me look up bootless. :-)

This is lovely. Yay you, with the poetry writing. I haven't written poetry in...I don't even know how long. Seven years? I vaguely remember starting one when I was pregnant with Ben, and he'll be eight in February.

This --

"what strength, to seize such plunder

and take a man with no outcry,
no blot or stain as evidence,
leave only the mute, sad, single shoe
to prove the traveler’s existence?"

made me shiver. In the good way.