Expose Your Toes!

Them Ealdormere folks got an odd tradition

When the sun swings to its Equinoxical position,

They build a little fire down along the docks,

They doff their shoes and they burn their winter socks.

Yes, they burn their socks at the Equinox;

You might think that’s peculiar, but I think it’s not,

See, they’re the same socks they put on last fall,

And they never took ‘em off to wash ‘em, not at all…

So they burn their socks at the Equinox

In a little ol’ fire burning nice and hot.

Some think incineration is the only solution,

‘Cause washin’ ‘em contributes to Ealdormere’s pollution.

Through the spring and the summer and into the fall,

They go around not wearin’ any socks at all,

Just stinky bare feet stuck in old turn shoes,

Whether out on the water or sippin’ on a brew.

So if you sail into the Harbor on the 20th of March,

And you smell a smell like Limburger sauteed with laundry starch,

You’ll know you’re downwind of the Ealdormere docks

Where they’re burning their socks for the Equinox!

​

Borrowed from 

Jefferson Holland, Poet Laureate of Eastport, 1995