One Shoe

Today at the gym

I saw

A single shoe

Sitting high on the

Lost and found shelf

In the men’s locker room,

And I thought

Who wears one shoe?

Obviously, people with one leg

Or someone with a broken leg.

I hadn’t seen anyone like that

But I don’t live at the gym,

So I asked the young woman

At the front counter and

She said, No, no one like that

Comes here, and she turned

To check someone in,

Someone with two legs

And two shoes.

I thought more about the shoe.

It was a nice black oxford

Obviously quite expensive

But now abandoned.

I would think the loss of a shoe

Would be obvious

And will watch the shelf

To see if it disappears

Claimed by its one-legged

Or injured owner

Or by someone who threw a shoe

And didn’t notice.

Or maybe it was taken up

Into the Paradise of Shoes

Where shoes of all sorts

Lounge about in a perfect climate

And don’t have to endure the

Indignity of foul-smelling feet

Thrust into them

Against their will.

And this thought

Made me smile.

 

Dan Verner

March 31, 2016