Lost Shoes

Cece Wheeler
Summer 2009

I saw a shoe on the side of the ramp
leading to the interstate
and it made me cry.

I hoped it belonged to some carefree young man
who rode with his feet stuck out the window
and the shoe just fell away.

It would make me cry harder to think it
was left from the scene of the accident
fallen from his foot as he was placed
on the stretcher.
I’m sure his mother would want it.

It’s not the first shoe I’ve seen
on that ramp.
I’ve seen a gray one and a blue one
and even a red one.
I’m not sure what happens at that
point in the road.

Perhaps the turn is too much force
when taken quickly and loose shoes
fly out car windows
to find new homes on the side of the road.


Do people miss their shoes?
Have any of them begged the driver to stop
So they can go back and pick it up?
Or are they meant to be road markers,
traces of lives lived and lost
reminders of our tenuous experience
on our commute.