To Whomever Finds My Left Shoe on I95

From A Rinse for My Bones - I wrote this one during the 2020 Poetry Marathon. I wanted to answer the questions I always ask myself when I see a lone shoe in the shoulder of the highway while driving to work. How did it get there? Why is there only one? Where is the other one? This poem is one way to answer them.

It was a morning to end all days

When I singed off a lock with my curling iron

And the cat regurgitated my parking pass

On a small mountain of laundry that

Contained my husband’s only clean shirt

And so began the endless chaos

As our toddler’s filthy diaper, pasted to the wall

Brown smears - head to toenail

Took an hour to peel, spray, and wipe

And the toaster shocked our 12-year-old

Making me crack a tooth when I gritted my teeth

So if you find my left shoe on the dusty roadside

Among the glass and trash and gravel

It’s because I dashed out, one bare foot

Left shoe in hand

Only to use that patent leather mary jane pump

Like a bat

Through the driver’s side window when

In flew a stink bug.