Trips Too Hazardous: Cecile Forman

May 3, 2020 Kate Belew with Cecile Forman (San Francisco)

Mid-morning, my flip flops smack the soles of my feet
a reminder that I am walking somewhere, going
there, eager to be there, with my clamorous flip flops

and then some days, I want to be barefooted and 

let the hot pavement burn the soles of my feet

When I was a kid I remember finding a snake 

We both jumped out of our skins in fright!

I keep the skin of a snake I caught in the river in my glove box

talisman on trips too hazardous for my flip flops on their own

I remember skinned knees too 

now scarred in tiny white zigzags 

And « I remember » is just a strange thread in my own life.