Forbidden Feet

by Bill Wolak

Respectable Roman women
always kept their feet concealed
wearing a long toga called a strola,
which was weighted at the bottom
to drag slightly along the ground
like a mist around her sandals.
Only a prostitute celebrating
some erotic festival like the Bacchanalia
dared display her bare feet in public
while dancing half-naked in the streets
and offering herself to any strangers
who happened to pass by
for as long as drinking continued
and the ecstatic music echoed
through temple courtyards.