A
Child’s Flip Flop
From my
seat on the bus
Held up
in heavy traffic for what seems like on eon
I spy a
child’s flip-flop, garishly green
Discarded
on the urban street
What
story could it tell?
One of a
clumsy refuse collector maybe -
The
rejected shoe escaping as he emptied the bin?
Or a child‘s
dropped school bag
At the
bus stop - the errant shoe missed
As she
gathered up her spilled belongings
Jumping
hurriedly on the now-arrived bus?
Maybe
even jetsam from a car accident –
Thrown
out of the window with the force of the impact?
Or a
parent’s ferocious fight that had sprawled out
In to
the street,
The flip
flop wearing child alternatively
Clinging
to her mother’s skirt or
Clawing
at her father’s jeans, crying in fear
Wanting
one of them to notice her distress
As she
stood between them,
Terrified
and alone in her anguish
Then
being snatched up from the floor
By her
still screaming mother
Who
threw the flip flop
After
the father, as he walked off
Shouting
obscenities behind him as he left?
What a
story it could tell.
But wait
– what’s this?
A little
scruffy dog scrambles in view
Scoops
up the flip flop like a chew toy in his mouth
Then
dashes back to a little boy in holey jeans and wild hair
He pats
the dog on the head
Takes
the flip flop and throws it again
Watches
the dog rush off after it –
As he
stands there beaming -
Wearing
the remaining garishly green flip flop
© Kate McClelland
2015
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