Dave Bonta's "Boot" is a tiny poem that begins with a sense of loss and ends in quiet attention. The first line, "after all my hopes," hints at disappointment, though the poem never says what the hopes were. That gap is part of its power: we feel the weight of something unfulfilled without being told the story.
What the speaker is left with is small and humble. They are "alone with / an old boot / by the water." A worn, discarded boot suggests something that has walked a long way and been left behind, and it may quietly mirror the speaker's own state. Yet the poem doesn't wallow. The final line turns outward: "I attend to the light." The word "attend" suggests care and patience, as if watching the light on the water is a kind of practice.
The mood is calm, weary, and gently consoling. Disappointment hasn't vanished, but the speaker finds something to be present for, and that feels like a modest kind of peace.