This morning there was another one
Looking used but not worn out
Beside the road
What do they mean
Do people just abandon them at sixty
On the freeway
Suddenly tired of a single shoe
Are they some secret sign
Are they just the shoes
Of careless drivers
Dangling one foot out the window
Do they belong to insomniac passengers
Who can only sleep
With their feet in the open air
One shoe falling off in a dream
What do they mean
What are they trying to say
And this afternoon that pair
(Pairs are unnatural)
Of high heels thirty feet apart
But one was red the other brown
Imagine what you want
Are they all that’s left of walkers
Single vacant tokens
Are they obscure milestones
Hex signs
But how are they lost
What carelessness prevails
Allows single shoes to fall from sealed cars
Do they contain desperate messages
Like bottles
Was each filled with wine and passion
And thrown away
To seal deep intimacies
Are they placed there
By itinerant princes
Looking for the right fit
What do they mean
They come in all sizes
Their tongues loll
They look helpless
What do they mean
So desolate so empty
So hungry without their feet