PawPaw, Madison County, NC 2014
For a time, Kate and Shu lived in our barn.
They planted a garden and tended the animals.
They mended fences and mucked stalls.
They left a footprint.
At some point, while walking to my workspace,
also in the barn, I noticed this shoe.
Ah, I thought at once, it’s Shu’s mailbox,
but not a very practical one.
Then, I understood it to be a mark, a totem.
A Kilroy Was Here moment.
A Sign of Shu, meant for the ages.
Leather, nailed to a locust post.
Who knows how long it will be there?
It's history was as half of a pair.
A flower bloomed from the other until the dogs claimed it as their own.
Chewed and carried off, gone for a time, then rediscovered like a forgotten lover.
It finally came to rest, under a shrub, nourishing the soil,
a different ending than its crucified mate.