Why shoes?

Left-right memorials, black even

Before the soot from the ovens.

Why shoes?

Where are the shirts, dresses, pants,

Stockings, skirts, watches, socks,

Sweaters, rings, neckties, pins,

Eyeglasses, underwear?

Who claimed them after?

Why shoes?

They wait to walk and run and dance and jump,

Weighted with flowers and candy,

And hackneyed hopes

And powerless prayers.

[Photo taken in Budapest, Hungary, August 2018