Look
Somebody wore these shoes
the pink ones with the slender heels
a chip here a strip of varnish gone
perhaps it was a young woman
on the boulevard
sipping ice wine
sipping blackberry brandy
eating caviar on thick dark bread
a speck caught in her tooth
caught at the corner of her mouth

Somebody wore these shoes
thick mahogany leather sandals
now faded to earth tones
the leather stretched and bowed
he might have been on the way to a river
felt his toes go down in mud
in a place he didn't know
and then in the space near the shore
he waited anxiously as she
loosened her drawers
loosened her starched white shirt that fell to earth
and they swam gloriously in the river
their white bodies like lines of
moonlight on water
water splashing
splashing at the edges of his shoes
left on the shore

Somebody wore these shoes
sandals with shimmering ice blue straps
the plastic sharp against her skin
the straps cutting angular lines
in the arch of her feet
but she didn't care
she was dancing
and her hair was thick
in the moist night air
curls clustered on her brow
she was dancing
and it was her time
as the sweat beaded on her upper lip
and she bit her tongue

And somebody wore these shoes
black serviceable pumps
the shoe strings darkened frayed
one shorter than the other
the leather contoured to corns and bumps
the weight of her body in these soles
she waited and crossed her arms
she waited and watched
she pressed her elbows against her body
she clutched the bones with her fingers
and straightened the lines of her dark skirt
pushed greying hair
from her eyes
she waited and watched
waited for a suitor
who would never come
the one with no stories to tell
the last in a line
of unfortunate men

Somebody wore these shoes.

_________________________________________________________________________

JAN ZLOTNIK SCHMID'S book of poems, (click title) SHE HAD THIS MEMORY, was published by Mellen Poetry Books July 2000.

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