Poetry, Theme Prompt, Writing Challenge, Writing Prompts

A Soleful Tale

Nancy's Notes 🖊️♬

Written for David’s Wea’ve Written Weekly.
Our PoW this week is Deanna who asks us to
incorporate a nursery rhyme character into
our poem. Here’s where the prompt took me.

Image by Me & Gemini

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe,
With windows and ladders and a fine balcony too,
The laces were bridges, the tongue was a hall,
And somehow she fit all her children in …. all!

The laundry line stretched from the heel to the toe,
Three hundred and twenty-four items in a row,
Small socks and trousers and dog blankets with fleas,
Flapping like flags in the afternoon breeze.

She stirred up her broth in a bucket-sized pot,
And hollered “Come in now, it’s ready and hot!”
But nobody heard her above all the noise,
Of tumbling and squabbling and banging of toys.

The goat ate the shoelace, the chickens ran free,
A child waved a spoon, laughing “Hey, look at me!”
The neighbors just watched from their sensible doors,
Quite glad that their houses had regular floors.

At last, when the moon rose above the old boot,
From bedroom to bedroom sliding down a great chute,
 She tucked them all in and kissed every small head,
And smiled to herself as she shuffled to bed.

For a shoe full of chaos is still full of love,
And that, the old woman was quite certain of.

NAR©2026
#W3

This is Family Is Family” by Rhett Walker from Family Camp

W3 Prompt #214: Wea’ve Written Weekly

Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, except where otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.

31 thoughts on “A Soleful Tale”

  2. Nancy, I love how you turned the old woman’s shoe into a bustling little world with shoelace bridges, laundry lines, and endless family chaos—all held together by her steady love. ❤️

    ~David

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