And what may be the first of a Hans Christian Anderson sequence

[rozk]

Red Shoes

Outside her door she found the cedar box
locked with a silver key.The shoes within
had heels five inches high and made so thin
and sharp it hurt to look at them. She knocks

hard at the sole, and feels the shank inside
the hardest steel. Toe box a set of rings
of light red leather, and the colour sings
to her of delicate high steps. She died

of wearing them. The red shoes made her dance
out of her life and out into the wild
she left her loving husband and her child
and whirled and pirouetted in a trance

Poisoned by blistered toes, in fever moans.
Filigree heels snap off and break her bones.