before St. Nicholas Day
I remind children to leave their boots
outside the doorstep
I left my slippers on the balcony although the weather forecast promised snow. For days, we had had nice, warm weather, unexpected in December. So I believed the forecast was wrong.
In the morning I was surprised to see it had indeed been snowing overnight. Glancing at my slippers covered in snow reminded me of the story “St. Nicholas’ shoes “ by the Croatian writer Nedjeljka Lupis, which is a part of the Croatian language Primary school syllabus.
According to this story children cannot hear St. Nicholas for he wears shoes made of clouds. The softness and whiteness of the snow on my slippers created an image of St. Nicholas entering the children’s’ homes silently and putting their gifts into their boots and shoes. At that precise moment, the slippers under the snow, at the beginning of December when we celebrate the Advent saint and story about St. Nicholas’ shoes created this haiga.
Grozdana Drašković
