Leah Mueller is the author of ten prose and poetry books. Her work appears in Rattle, Midway Journal, Citron Review, The Spectacle, Miracle Monocle, Outlook Springs, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, etc. It has also been featured in trees, shop windows in Scotland, poetry subscription boxes, and literary dispensers throughout the world. Her flash piece, Land of Eternal Thirst will appear in the 2022 edition of Sonder Press's Best Small Fictions anthology. Visit her website at www.leahmueller.org.
Footslog
Once I walked
without counting
steps or calories.
Sidewalks were
fields of play.
I hurtled forward,
weight like
paper wings.
But now, I check
the numbers
on my phone face,
as I trudge ahead--
first towards 200,
then 1,000.
When I achieve
6,000 steps,
my phone
congratulates me.
You have
reached your goal,
it crows.
When did movement
become a duty,
stripped forever
of adventure?
Such a cruel
trick of age
and metabolism,
but at least
my decrepit feet
still know
the way home.
