The Ruby Slippers

They glitter like music
They are always attached
to invisible feet
curling feet
girl feet

Dorothy wants them so badly
she would cut off her toes to fit into them
like Cinderella’s stepsisters and the glass shoes

She could grow into them like a first-grader

She must have gotten blisters from them

How they must have hurt her,
those shoes -- they are

The color of blood

The color of time