Red Shoes
This is what happens
The morning after you die
Your wife has been up all night crying
Then she calls the caregiver
And he and she dress you
In the tuxedo tee-shirt you loved
And the bright red sneakers that you also loved
(I hear that the angels often want to wear them)
Then men come in a van and take you away
Or they take away what used to be you
The part that remains
Red shoes and a tuxedo tee
And someone who cared enough to cry all night
That’s all there is
And that’s, if you’re lucky
Steven Meloan‘s fiction has appeared in Roadside Press, Newington Blue Press, and Lummox Press, as well as at Litquake, Quiet Lightning, Library Girl, The Santa Monica Poetry Reading Series, and other literary events. His short fiction collection, St. James Infirmary, was released in 2023 on Roadside Press, and a collaboration collection with his brother Michael, The Kind the Pharaohs Try, was released in 2024 on Naked Light Press. He is a former busker in London, Paris, and Berlin, and is currently assembling a collection of poetry.
