May 21-22, 2020

I bought a pair of a pair of shoes

several years ago in Kingston

alongside children denuding shelves

harvesting boxes to their towering joy

laughing as high as they could reach

I don’t know if I was innocent

or complicit in their con/de/struction

either way, their laughter

flowed around my feet

a wild and torrential flood

warm and joyous

carried me to the door

smiling as the cashier took my money

gave me my pair of a pair of shoes

in a ginormous bag, and said

“Thank you,

are those your children?”

“No.” I said

because they weren’t mine

I had merely enjoyed their joy

in that store on that day I owned

but a pair of a pair of shoes

and a smile