Taylor Graham
One Of a Pair


In the ER, I consider
the single foot. My fellow survivors
wear two paired shoes apiece;
one's in slippers, another
in mismatched socks.

All morning I've run these inventories
in my mind, since three a.m. when you slid
down my hung-up winter-coat,
grasping at more support

than a wardrobe can bear;
since you collapsed without
explaining, and the guys in dark
uniforms and say-nothing/seen-
it-all faces

hoisted you up barefoot
and bore you away under lights.
Who worries what happens
to a shoe without its mate?

Cross my feet at the ankles.
A monitor displays the paired pressure,
systolic/diastolic, of the heart
pumping blood through your
life/mine.

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