It sits forlorn amongst
A smug array of pairs
A single shoe, an evening shoe
That would have once had style
.
Was it a Cinderella story
That brought this shoe
To a cluttered shelf
In Oxfam, Camden Town?
.
Or
.
The house clearance of
A dead woman’s things
Thrown distractedly into
Black bin bags and left
In the doorway
.
A woman whose life
Had been full and rich —
Her legacy, a single shoe
On a cluttered shelf
In Oxfam, Camden Town
About the Creator
Matthew Batham
I’m a horror movie lover and a writer. My stories have been published in numerous magazines and on websites in both the UK and the US.
I’ve written several books including the story collection Terrifying Tales to Read on a Dark Night
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I wanted to title this something different, but worried that my chosen title might cause problems entering the United States in the future so this is the new title. It's the greatest title. No one has ever written a title better than this. (All titles unrelated to content).
Let me be honest. I am finding this difficult. Now, I like a challenge, a stretch, a bit of an obstacle course. “Write about the decline of the British Empire in the form of a narrative poem in which your protagonist is an artichoke” I read, and flex my fingers. “Write a haiku to evoke the sensation of sibilance using only the first half of the alphabet.” “Well”, I think to myself, “this should be fun.” But “write about a system that isn’t working”? A system that isn’t working? Now? In 2026? ONE system? My favourite system that isn’t working? The sexiest system that isn’t working? The one giving me the most angst day to day? The one giving me the most existential dread? I am, as I say, finding this difficult. I will own that I have contemplated writing a thousand words on why the steady “all on” setting on my fairy lights is the EIGHTH of seven options which must be sequentially activated to get there, because that is a system that some fool came up with and it definitely doesn’t work, and now who is paying the price, eh? But how can I write about my fairy lights when…. When…. When….
By Hannah Moore6 days ago in Humans
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