Stilettos, by Robyn Lance won the 2014 Michael Thwaites Poetry Award. Read Robyn’s poem below. Other shortlisted and winning entries will be published here in the coming weeks.
The diminutive bride, her maids, mother,
and an aunt teetering in toe-peeper taupe,
hang five toes off just subtler-than-stilts stilettos,
each foot an italicised s with arches stretched
to the max like necks at the back of the crowd.
Steps taken with a stork’s precision polka-dot cathedral pile
and clack on polished floors like the echoing tocks of a clock.
Rising from four courses, three speeches and a glass or two,
the aunt slips off sling backs and resumes life on the level.
Horseshoe-hugs and the guests depart.
The M-o-B flattens feet to the floor
while the bride in her getaway car
sheds sequinned heels and reaches
for white toe-spreader trousseau thongs.
CAPITAL LETTERS 