Foot Loose
Single shoes
(sandals mostly) washed ashore
by waves born off Africa’s coast.
The waves gather the orphans
floating in the Atlantic
(pink, black, used-to-be-white)
collected by some sympathetic
hand, lined up in a diminishing
row of abandoned little soles.
Where are their mates?
And what happened to that naked foot?
Was there another pair to replace the lost?
I imagine a forlorn face looking
at the orphan sandal
sadly consigning it to a burial at sea.
--Barbara Malcolm
Single shoes
(sandals mostly) washed ashore
by waves born off Africa’s coast.
The waves gather the orphans
floating in the Atlantic
(pink, black, used-to-be-white)
collected by some sympathetic
hand, lined up in a diminishing
row of abandoned little soles.
Where are their mates?
And what happened to that naked foot?
Was there another pair to replace the lost?
I imagine a forlorn face looking
at the orphan sandal
sadly consigning it to a burial at sea.
--Barbara Malcolm
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