Shoe
by Jan Wiezorek / August 11th, 2024
This shoe fell apart
in a field of pickers
like the poor crying.
This shoe has a pointy
toe that kicks pickers
in the poor, crying fields.
We are not poor
because we are lazy;
we are the poor lacking
choice, agency, autonomy,
words. We are people treated
as objects in muddy fields,
with our only shoes
falling apart like a hooked
toe-soul toward justice.
You may not believe in sin,
but I hope what you need
will still respect my walk.
I hope I mean something
because not even hope
can hide in this shoe.
Jan Wiezorek writes from Michigan. His debut poetry chapbook, Forests of Woundedness, is forthcoming this fall from Seven Kitchens Press. Wiezorek’s poetry appears, or is forthcoming, in The London Magazine, The Westchester Review, Lucky Jefferson, The Broadkill Review, LEON Literary Review, and elsewhere. He taught writing at St. Augustine College, Chicago, and authored the teachers’ ebook Awesome Art Projects That Spark Super Writing (Scholastic, 2011). His poetry has been awarded by the Poetry Society of Michigan.
Read other articles by Jan.
This article was posted on Sunday, August 11th, 2024 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.
