The Noble Blue Shoe
Jenn Dugan

She’s a lady tainted by greed and ambition,
craving status,
to stand alone, elite
and distant,
as a queen.

Her chance arrives in a carriage,
and a tiny shoe, pastel blue,
meant for another emerges.

Switching, changing, rearranging
who she is.
The shoe's too narrow, but she
holds back screams with each slice
of herself she flings aside.

Now her foot is nothing
but a bulb of blood,
and the noble blue shoe is finally stained
the color of royalty.