Black Shoes

Children are born with black shoes on

then the boys are given blue shorts and hats and chequered shirts

and the girls red dresses and white tights with red stripes

then the dresses get small

and the tights even tighter

but the red stripes remain

not crossing each other

but in neat lines

leading

to the inevitable

black shoes  

August 24, 1998

Anna Kortesalmi

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