I picked you up on Huaihai Road five years ago
Baby napping in her pram, giving me
roughly ten minutes to fall in love
with you, who I knew would be difficult to tame:
synthetic leather, geometric pattern,
hardened soles, terrible price –
but one can’t put a price on love, they say
so I brought you back home.
The first year was a curse, the second year a struggle,
The third a compromise, the fourth slightly better,
Then I could barely feel you.
This morning I checked on you carefully:
Your skin peels off like yellow wallpaper
Your bruised nose and cracked heels
Remind me of grandma smiling
Awkwardly after multiple falls.
I put you in the coffin I brought you home with,
Bidding farewell to my fabulous shoe love.
United Nude
(2011-2016)
Shi Huiwen