The Lonely Shoe Lying on the Road by, Murel Spark

One sad shoe that someone has probably flung out of a car or truck.

Why only one?

This happens on an average one year in four

But always throughout my life, my travels,

I see it like a memorandum.

Something I have forgotten to remember,
that there are always mysteries in life.

That shoes do not always go in pairs, any more than we do.

That one fits;the other, not.

That children can thoughtlessly and in a merry fashion

chuck out someone's shoe, split upsomeone's life.

But usually that shoe that I see is a man's, old, worn, the soleparted from the upper.

Then why did the owner keep the other,keep it to himself?

Was he afraid (as I so often am with inanimate objects) to hurt it's feelings?

That one shoe in the road invokes my awe and my sad pity.