Monday 6 May 2019


The Shoe Dream

by Carolyn Adams


Aunt Betty tells me shoe stores make her angry. 

She hates the brittle sheen
of the leathers and plastics
just visible under the split lids
of the colored paper boxes.
Lifting each shoe, she has me
put them under the seats,
on shelves where they don’t go,
in the wrong boxes.
The air is heavy
with the stink of chemicals
and preservatives,
cheap perfume and sweat.
Customers wander in
and out of the store,
taking hammers to the broad
windows, prying up the check-out
stand, scattering
the store’s profits.

Aunt Betty throws her car keys
on the kitchen table.
Kicks off the pumps Uncle Ed
bought her the day before the night
he left.


* * * * *

Carolyn Adams’ poetry and art have appeared in Beatnik Cowboy, Willawaw Journal, Glass Mountain, San Pedro River Review, and Common Ground Review, among others. She has been nominated for a Pushcart prize, as well as for Best of the Net, and was a finalist for 2013 Poet Laureate of the city of Houston, TX. She is currently an associate editor for Mojave River Review. Having relocated from Houston, she now lives in Beaverton, OR. 

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