The tiny rock in my shoe causes a pain
          that it seems never will end.
With each placement of my sneaker
          my foot screeches in ineffable agony.
Oh! The hideous pain caused by this
          tiniest of stones is near reason to stop
          and remove my shoe.

And yet
          with my mind fixed squaredly
          on the anguish and misery in my shoe,
I momentarily set aside the perpetual suffering
          in my soul.

All previous cares and concerns
          are carried far away
          by the raging current of sorrow
          caused by this one small pebble.
I think not of the dark and hellish essence
          flowing in the blackened gutters
          of my mind’s inner passageways.
The seemingly endless torture of my days
          is wholly consumed
          and slips easily from my thoughts.

With this pebble in my shoe,
          I walk on.

– Tim Brooks