Gail Louise Siegel
They Made You Buy Blue Shoes
It was in the 70's, at the McDonald’s where the
protesters held a puke-in. The marchers stirred up yellow mustard
powder in water, and got sick everywhere. But that, the puke-in, was
long after I bought the shoes at Jacobson's Department Store, after
I wore the blue shoes for two long days before tearing off my blue
smock and quitting in a huff. After they mailed my meager paycheck,
not even enough to pay for the stubby blue shoes. That puke-in was
years later, after my feet sprouted a bumpy rash and a doctor at
Student Health said it was from those shoes. I read about it in The
Ann Arbor News. After I moved out of the dorm and into the first of
nine houses, leaving behind pink towels, those shoes—all shiny and
synthetic—and a little, ticking red clock.
Gail Louise Siegel is from Evanston,
Illinois. Her work is in nooks and crannies across the web, from
Juked to Post Road.