The Red Shoes

Sheila Black’s “The Red Shoes” begins with the speaker’s discovery of a pair of “red slippers” (Line 1) that have been “buried” (Line 1) beneath the flooring of their home in New York City. The shoes have been there for a while because “mice [have] nested in them” (Line 2). The discovery of the shoes was made because of the speaker’s attempt to refurbish the floor. The speaker and their partner have used “many cans of deck paint” (Line 3), but to no avail. The “floor splinter[s]” (Line 2) regardless. The damaged shoes and flooring echo the damaged and/or damaging people that surround the speaker, and they hint at the changes these people must make in order to survive.

The sense of continuing damage and how it affects the speaker is shown when the speaker breaks a “tooth” (Line 4) while eating at a restaurant called “the Embajada” (Line 4). While the speaker only suffers this small damage, the next day “three teenagers [are] shot dead” (Line 5) as they eat their Puerto Rican dishes of “mofongo” (Line 6). Here, the reader realizes the speaker narrowly missed an arbitrary act of violence. There is a sense throughout the poem that the danger and violence circle nearer and nearer to the speaker.