In her shoes

Sofia-Mae's teacher told the class:

"to know a man, you must walk a day in his shoes,"

so after school, she crept into Mum's wardrobe

to see whether the saying is true.

Platforms splashed with glitter

sparkle in the sun. Pumps with beads. 

Patterns and prints! Pussy-bows!

Fringing.  Jewels.  Studs!

She slips on Vivienne Westwood boots

because they're shaped like horse's hooves and  

she loves to ride.  Sofia looks in the mirror.  

"This isn’t Mum’s wardrobe! Am I in the past?

Or am I in the future?" 

Old dusty room.  Wooden floorboards.

Wooden furniture: a table, a chair, a bed;

Sofia spies a woven tapestry

of what must be the land outside.  It is

the same image, she sees in front of her,

in the mirror.  Sofia is at the top

of a tall castle surrounded by

a throng of exotic and peculiar

beasts.  Some recognisable, others

extraordinary. 

A lion strides about the grass verges

leopards laze, a rainbow-hued magpie

flits from beast to beast. A purple pheasant

moves slowly, quietly amongst a herd of wild boar. 

A two-headed bear sits by the water, catching silver fishes. 

One paw feeds one mouth and then the other.

Encircling the animals is a moat

connected to a river which zigzags away

into the far unknown.  "Where does it go?"  

she turns back to the mirror to gaze

at her reflection.