These Good Shoes

I really wanted to capture the purposeful ignorance of the majority of the population to what was happening in the camps during WWII. I like this, but would love some deep critique. Thank you!


These Good Shoes
Autumn heat along the Potomac chased out attraction assaulted selves to the chill
In the hushed halls of the Holocaust Museum
Expecting emotional barrage we erected barricades which withstood
The reduced-to-documentary drama
Until rounding a corner we reached the room of shoes

Thousands with thousands of shoes gathered, ghastly and grayed
A cemetery of shoes
Behind waist high walls lining the gallery sepulcher
Work boots, dress shoes, satin pumps, good sturdy school shoes
Hundreds of pairs of tiny shoes. These were the good shoes.

The ones removed from the feet of the Jews, mostly the Jews.
But also the Gypsies, the subversives, the gays, Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Shoes aren’t needed for showering.
Outcast, unclean took off these good shoes as they prepared for cleansing.
Grateful for the chance at hot water after miles of marching
Aching swollen feet released from excruciating encasement
Mothers removing shoes for children too small to manage laces.

Decent people put them on again. Upstanding citizens would not question
Why or from where they had received such good new shoes.
They took and were
Grateful for the chance for dry feet after months of privation
Frozen swollen feet eased into state-sanctioned sanctuary
Mothers putting on shoes for children too small to manage laces.

Who walked the mile in the shoes of another?
Thousands did – in these good shoes that granted innocence and ignorance
Blindness and deafness these magic shoes that came from heaven
Of course they couldn’t have come from anywhere else.
These good shoes that were
First worn by angels.