REFUSE
If, in the moments
after we left
you pulled in
to the new Howard Johnson
Motor Lodge
you would’ve seen
two faded husks
of old black leather
collapsed together
in the morning sun.
Perhaps you’d think
some big snake
had just wriggled free
from his old skin
but it would just
have been my father
newly returned
from his first war
deciding before
he headed for the turnpike
in our packed wagon
not to wear
for one minute more
his moldy black
low-quarter shoes.
So kicking them off,
he left them there
between white lines
in the parking lot
preferring instead
the comfort of flip flops
as we drove off.
Mark Madigan received his MFA in Writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. His poems have previously appeared in The American Scholar, California Quarterly,The Louisville Review, Poetry, Tar River Poetry and other magazines.