ABSTRACT
At birth my feet were unusually formed, in a way that would have made it difficult to walk. The condition is called clubfoot. Treatment involves a series of plaster casts that gradually reshape the feet and ankles. After several months, the Achilles tendon is cut. Then, more casts. I don’t remember any of this, but I have always had a strong need to go without shoes. As a teenager I used to walk barefoot in the halls at school, which was against the rules, and sometimes on the street as well. This fragment—the oldest collected in this volume—is from a semi-fictionalized account of an afternoon spent wandering in the city with a friend. I read it now through the lenses of disability and urban embodiment. 1
