42. The Fury Of Overshoes by Anne Sexton - A Friend to Laura

In this episode, Laura talks about the poem that has been a friend to her – 'The Fury of Overshoes' by Anne Sexton. ​ Our thanks to the Anne Sexton Estate and Sterling Lord Literistic Agency for allowing us to share the poem with you in this way. ​ www.sll.com Laura Furner is an arts producer living and working in London. A commended poet for the Foyle Young Poet of the Year Award in 2012, Laura went on to edit and publish work in the University of Leeds' creative arts magazine The Scribe, and has since worked with The Poetry Society and Poet in the City. She is currently producing a new spoken word show for VAULT Festival 2020. You can follow Laura on twitter @laurahjayne Laura visited The Poetry Exchange at London Podcast Festival at Kings Place in 2019. www.kingsplace.co.uk Laura is in conversation with The Poetry Exchange team members, Andrea Witzke-Slot and Al Snell. Andrea reads the gift reading of 'The Fury of Overshoes.' ********* The Fury Of Overshoes They sit in a row outside the kindergarten, black, red, brown, all with those brass buckles. Remember when you couldn't buckle your own overshoe or tie your own overshoe or tie your own shoe or cut your own meat and the tears running down like mud because you fell off your tricycle? Remember, big fish, when you couldn't swim and simply slipped under like a stone frog? The world wasn't yours. It belonged to the big people. Under your bed sat the wolf and he made a shadow when cars passed by at night. They made you give up your nightlight and your teddy and your thumb. Oh overshoes, don't you remember me, pushing you up and down in the winter snow? Oh thumb, I want a drink, it is dark, where are the big people, when will I get there, taking giant steps all day, each day and thinking nothing of it? Copyright Anne Sexton. From 'Selected Poems of Anne Sexton' (Houghton Mifflin, 2000)