Gail Louise Siegel

They Made You Buy Blue Shoes

It was in the 70's, at the McDonald’s where the protesters held a puke-in. The marchers stirred up yellow mustard powder in water, and got sick everywhere. But that, the puke-in, was long after I bought the shoes at Jacobson's Department Store, after I wore the blue shoes for two long days before tearing off my blue smock and quitting in a huff. After they mailed my meager paycheck, not even enough to pay for the stubby blue shoes. That puke-in was years later, after my feet sprouted a bumpy rash and a doctor at Student Health said it was from those shoes. I read about it in The Ann Arbor News. After I moved out of the dorm and into the first of nine houses, leaving behind pink towels, those shoes—all shiny and synthetic—and a little, ticking red clock.