Excited to be published in Women’s Ink, the journal of The Society of Women Writers , Winter/July 2026.
Giving WomenWriters a Voice. with my poem Red Shoes.
How wonderful this poem has found a place to be published.
Thank you to the brilliant and dedicated editor of Women’s Ink, Jan Conway ,for a packed and interesting journal of women’s writing.
Red Shoes
When they were lost she really didn’t notice.
A loss as inconspicuous as the turning tide.
There were other shoes, boots and loafers
heeled-blacks for dressy and sandals.
Some days thoughts of their loss
return and her gloom mirrors the sky –
dull slanting sun on its axis, a winter light.
So easily mislaid, forgotten, in boxes
backs of wardrobes, lost between seasons
and fashions, in throw-outs, downsizing.
Sometimes searching she feels like a lyre bird
scrabbling in tangled undergrowth of forest.
She had not thought,
what am I without them
until one day when reality closes in
an elemental grief fixes her.
She rummages trembling, staring down
memories of younger days. Now a battle
with night. Bird song dulls, carried on wind
to her worn ears.
Walking on, she glance down
at her sensible shoes. Loss a deep vermillion.
The red ones, their freedom, their sparkle,
their crickle remain a resonant memory.