Sizing Up The Cost of War

...She is the author of two novels and several books of poetry, most recently "where river meets ocean...

...Poem sizing up the cost of war what is left but the shoes shoes scuffed and torn no longer having feet to carry them shoes empty now work boots still bearing mud from the last field that he had plowed with his father empty now red sneakers with white stripes brought back from america by her oldest son given to her youngest both of them immediately running outside kicking the soccer ball back and forth the older ruffling the youngster's head after a well aimed goal empty now heavy and white they were the first pair of shoes she ever walked in the first she had learned to untie so that she could wriggle out and once again feel the sand sift between her toes empty now his work boots were resoled many times next season he would have bought a new pair or perhaps the season after that but these old ones darkened from the oil had become supple and familiar they knew his feet grasped his ankles and kept them strong empty now she had smiled when he offered the embossed leather pumps made for her in italy from the pattern he had carefully traced around her narrow feet long toes tapered in perfect symmetry empty now regulation boots smoothed by the sand salt crystals seeming to be so much of the desert they had walked the inside soles showing imprints of thick heavy feet empty now and these hand made slippers that were a vanity only a grandmother's silk flowered kiss that never touched the ground because as her father's favorite she was still carried everywhere empty now the red heels she saved for the brown loafers passed down the sandals strapped and tied all empty now the flesh gone the blood gone the legs gone all gone -devorah major devorah major is the poet laureate of San Francisco and the editor of the anthology "The Other Side of the Postcard...

...Her 1996 book of poems, "street smarts," won a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award...