As I sat inside my morning Creative Writing class with Professor Morrissey, I started to feel nervous because it was approaching the time when we'd have to share some of our poetry with the class.
"Who wants to start?" Professor Morrissey said standing at the front of the class in a gray suit. He was in his late fifties with well-trimmed gray hair, but he looked much younger than his age. All his students loved him because he had a warm personality and he was always cracking jokes. Sometimes he'd wear a leather jacket to class and other times, he'd be dressed in a suit. "Ah, it seems to always be the same people..." He glanced over at me and said, "Miguel. How about we start with you?"
"Uh, okay," I said nervously. I read a couple of my poems out loud and when I was finished, I let out a sigh of relief. But I was afraid that my writing was going to be picked apart.
"Well done," Professor Morrissey said. "Now, can anyone tell me what some of the recurring themes are in Miguel's work?" A student in the back raised her hand. "Yes," Professor Morrissey said as he called on her. "Go ahead."
"I noticed a lot of feet imagery in his poems," the student said, which generated quite a few laughs from the class.
"That's interesting," Professor Morrissey said. He glanced over at me with a curious look in his eye and I could feel my face turning red. And I wished that I could've crawled under my desk and turned invisible.
After class, Professor Morrissey approached me in the hallway.
"I want to see you sometime during my office hours," he said.
"Okay," I said.
"I think your work is really good and I may have some opportunities for you as far as poetry submissions go," he said.
"Great. I'll stop by later today."
"Perfect," he said with a grin as he patted my arm and I watched his feet as he walked away.
For the rest of the day I swam in my embarrassment. I'd always had a foot fetish, but I never planned on revealing it to the world. Maybe I was just being paranoid.
After my last class of the day, I stopped by Professor Morrissey's office.
"Knock, knock," I said before stepping inside.
He was sitting at his computer when he turned around with a large smile and said, "Hey. Good to see ya. Come in. Have a seat." As he removed his reading glasses, I sat down in the chair next to his desk. "So, as I mentioned to you before, I was really impressed by your writing. And I want to put you in touch with the head of our poetry department," he said.
"I'd really appreciate that."
"I'll speak to her sometime this week and then I'll send you an email," he said writing a note down on a piece of paper as a reminder.
"Thanks."
"Send me some more of your foot poetry," he said, and then he quickly corrected himself. "I mean,
metered
poetry. Not
foot
as in
human feet
," he said with a laugh. "Although, you do seem to be fond of those too." I felt my embarrassment returning and I didn't know what to say. "I hope you didn't feel too embarrassed in class today."
"No, it's fine," I said.
"It's not an easy thing to do, but I'm glad you shared your work. And you're not the only poet to include foot imagery in his work. Pushkin did as well. But he mainly liked women's feet. Read
Eugene Onegin
when you get a chance."
"I will."
"You know, I might even have a copy here that I can let you borrow," he said putting on his glasses. He turned around and scanned his eyes over his bookcase. Then he stood up and pulled down a copy of
Eugene Onegin