Patently Obvious

There, among the toys at a friend’s house
A child’s white patent shoe lies alone on the wooden floor
Laughing, I pick it up and try to put it on over my boot.
‘Look, Millie,’ I say to my friend’s daughter
‘The shoe doesn’t fit. I’m an ugly sister
It must belong to Cinderella!’
She took one look at me and turned back to the TV
But as us grown-ups laughed
I stopped smiling inside.
No, the shoe didn’t fit
Yes, I was too old to wear it
And maybe there wouldn’t be a prince after all.
Later, toys still scattered on the floor,
I sat and watched that solitary shoe from a distance
And wondered how, by just slipping it on,
I’d slipped on a few home truths
And that shoe just lay there
Smirking at me from the bottom of its sole

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