humans were made to run barefoot.

we were made to climb mountains, fighting gravity
and to fly across stony deserts and dangerous forests.

we were not made for these,
these bastardizations of heels and soles and
    skin.

humans were made to run barefoot,
because
we were always meant to leave traces of ourselves
on everything we touched, every inch
of the world that we would walk.

we were always meant to take with us
the scars left by the walls we would climb,
the bruises left by the falls we would take,
the hard skin and the instant familiarity left
    by the paths we would forge
    alone.

so worry not.
you were never meant to feel the skin of this earth
through designer heels and combat boots.

you were only ever meant to feel the weight of yourself,
a breathing, bleeding, human
charged with electric emotions and spinning
out of control
    upon the ground,
meant to break yourself on the roads you paved
and the dreams you wrought in stone.

but tread carefully.

sometimes you will step on glass,
and sometimes you will step on hearts.
and so always, you will walk in blood.

make your footprints matter.