Hailey Nez – #DearNativeYouth Poetry Winner (High/Middle School)
Little Lost Skecher
I remember it well
My white Skechers shoe
I’m not usually one to dwell
But on that day I’d been rather blue
Golden rays of sun
Thick bunches of trees
The day had been long and fun
Children’s laughter in the breeze
Lower and lower the sun sunk
We walked along anyway
Past the home of an angry skunk
To the edge of the waterway
There was a familiar gush
Of water from the broken pipe
It had formed a pond with mud like slush
I remember being the excited type
I’ve always loved water
And so I wanted to splash away
But my spirit quickly began to falter
The spot where I had decided to play
Began to give way
Suddenly I was sinking
Fast enough for panic
I don’t remember thinking
Only yelling for my father
With enough force to be volcanic
He came to my rescue
Faster than a hare
His hands pulled me into refuge
But one of my shoes was left without care
The swampy mud engulfed my pretty white shoe
Pulling it down and down into the abyss
There was very little that I could do
Apart from cry at my loss
As I watched it sink lower without resist
I cried after that
As my father pulled me back to Grandma’s home
In a little red wagon
All I could do was whine and moan
Truly, I had loved my shoes
And now one was missing
Forever and always I wanted to have two
All I could do was keep wishing
This is how I remember it
How I’d lost my shoe
On a summer trip to Grandma’s
Late in the afternoon
Hailey Nez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in October 2000. She has resided in Albuquerque for a majority of her lifetime, excluding the years spent living on the Navajo reservation near Window Rock, Arizona. Hailey lives with her family, which consists of her loving mother, father and twin sisters.
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