The Old Man and the Shoe
Ari Honarvar
A child's shoe, a lone rose-colored plastic Croc
with Hello Kitty waving through mud stains
He'd found it propped against his white picket fence
perhaps tossed from a moving car
The old man doesn't know why
but he cradles the shoe, a featherlight thing
in the palm of his shaking hand
He washes the dirt from Hello Kitty's face
and into the sink, he weeps
He had said to his neighbor,
‘My heart goes to them, but we don't have room.
We have to take care of our own.’
The neighbor stood silent, biting her lower lip
But he went to meet them anyway
He doesn't know why
The little girl stared
poking her head from behind her mom
her big brown curls falling over one eye
They said she doesn’t speak
because of what she saw in the war
He watches the dirt and his tears
swirl down the drain
The shiny Hello Kitty
waves
with Hello Kitty waving through mud stains
He'd found it propped against his white picket fence
perhaps tossed from a moving car
The old man doesn't know why
but he cradles the shoe, a featherlight thing
in the palm of his shaking hand
He washes the dirt from Hello Kitty's face
and into the sink, he weeps
He had said to his neighbor,
‘My heart goes to them, but we don't have room.
We have to take care of our own.’
The neighbor stood silent, biting her lower lip
But he went to meet them anyway
He doesn't know why
The little girl stared
poking her head from behind her mom
her big brown curls falling over one eye
They said she doesn’t speak
because of what she saw in the war
He watches the dirt and his tears
swirl down the drain
The shiny Hello Kitty
waves
Ari Honarvar is the founder of Rumi With A View, dedicated to building music and poetry bridges across war-torn and conflict-ridden borders. She conducts Resilience through Joy workshops for refugees and volunteers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Her novel, A Girl Called Rumi (September 2021) weaves a tale of immigration, redemption, and the power of storytelling and is based on Ari's experience growing up in the Iran-Iraq war. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Washington Post, Vice, and elsewhere.
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