Thinking About Shoes Poem by gershon hepner

When you are making love do you
think often about shoes,
and wonder which would be the two
that you’d least like to lose?
Do you think of the car you drive,
sedan, sports, SUV,
which next time might help you arrive,
and make great love with me?
Do you think of TV shows
you’ve seen, or books you’ve read,
and politicians you oppose,
while wishing some were dead?
Do you think of the meals that you
must make for kids and hubby,
and wonder if your nails are due
for manicure—so grubby?
Do you look at my walls and think
of picture I should straighten,
and fantasize about your shrink,
or wonder if he’s Satan?
Say, do you worry that there may
be problems with your plumbing?
If not, why don’t you ever say
my name when you are coming?

Inspired by an amazing article on Jane Smiley by Maria Russo in the LA Times, February 11,2007 (“Smiley finds a sexy way around L. A. Noir”) . Smiley has written a book called “Ten Days in the Hills” about which John Updike wrote in the New Yorker: “The sexual descriptions set a new mark for explicitness in a work of non-pornographic content.” Russo writes:

She had not meant to shock. “What I found interesting, what kept me going, was trying to capture that experience we’ve all had. You’re talking or doing something with your partner, and you start making love, and all that other stuff doesn’t go away. You’re still thinking in some part of your mind, ‘Where is my shoe? ’”

2/11/07