The Price of Narrow Shoes

by Melinda Thomsen

I was raised by Cinderella
souls whose high arched
feet fit into glass slippers.

Those extra narrow sized shoes
I wore looked like Barbie
accessories, not the medium

widths I wear now after years
of retail sales and teaching
in New York. Then, I wore kitten

heels, which pinched my toes
inside the shoes’ pointy
vamps until my nails bled.

After parties, my shoes came off,
and I swung my Barbie shoes
at my side. Like a mangled umbrella

fluttering after the storm,
I walked home on Third Avenue
with toes boring through my stockings.

I only looked ruined.

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Melinda Thomsen’s (she/her)  four poetry collections include  Dropping Sunrises in a Jar (2024)  from Finishing Line Press,  and Armature,  a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer da Vinci Eye award.  A 2019 Pushcart Nominee from The Comstock Review, she teaches high school English in Greenville, NC.