{"id":2095,"date":"2026-07-08T05:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T05:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2026-07-08T13:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:15:55","slug":"toes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=2095","title":{"rendered":"Toes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\u201cI like<\/em> your toenails<\/strong><\/em>!\u201d

A unseen voice declares this, 
drifting upwards in my direction.
The sound, and message,
shakes me out of my 
grocery task list mission, 
pulling my harried brain 
out of my skull 
and into the external world.

I swivel my eyes down.
I spy, 
at less than half my height,
a Ramona Quimby-looking girl.
All eager chocolate eyes and
limp, micro-cut brunette fringe.
Maybe five years old, 
she stands, legs wide, 
fists to waist, 
in superhero stance.
She herself dons toe-covering
sparkly bronze-hued Crocs 
and a heart and dog-patterned 
pajama shirt, 
which I read to be
both not hers, 
and custom-printed.

After clocking my 
interaction instigator,
I conduct a visual sweep 
of my toes:
I see two long pale feet 
in black Reef thongs.
Atop each greying foam sole, 
my set of five long toes sit, 
painted in shiny orangey red, 
OPI enameled 
just for the occasion 
of our country\u2019s 
two hundred fiftieth birthday.

Upon not too socially awkward 

\u2014 a pause \u2014

I say:
\u201cWell thank<\/em> you! I like them too!\u201d

And then I tack on:
\u201cAnd I like your<\/em> glittery Crocs!\u201d

Without hesitation, 
my new admirer replies:
\u201cI know! They\u2019re great!\u201d
Before she launches into:
\u201cLet me tell you about my pajamas<\/em>!
\u201cThere are red hearts here,\u201d 
she points.
\u201cAll these photos 
are heads of real<\/em> dogs! 
These two are mine!
\"And this dog head picture, 
that is Lucky! 
\u201cAnd this head here, 
well that<\/em> is Bennett!
\u201cAnd this dog there, 
that\u2019s Grandma\u2019s, 
and his<\/em> name is Romeo!\"

I glance up at who I take 
to be Grandma.
She carries 
in her resting posture 
the type of tired 
that only comes 
from a long day of caretaking 
of a curious child.
I smile with my mouth 
and send a tacit message 
of appreciation and energy to her.

\"I hope you have the best<\/em> day!\u201d
I exclaim, with emphasis, 
stooping down to my 
new companion\u2019s eye level.
At that, the little shopper 
tilts her head back 
a degree or two 
as if the weight of calculating 
whether this, in fact, 
is the greatest day 
she\u2019ll ever experience, 
is maxing the RAM in her mind.

She might need a minute,
it appears.

I twist back to the high shelf 
behind me for 
the canister of bread crumbs 
I\u2019d been reaching for 
before receiving 
an unexpected compliment 
on my pedicure.

I grin at the shelves.
All it takes is an outreach
to break through the mundanity 
of a grey rainy day at the market.

<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cToes,\u201d on chance encounters at the local market, written Wednesday, July 8, poem 189 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: “Grocery Store Aisle,” by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1573,1572,2,776],"tags":[1805,1263,1801,1807,1235,1802,1806,1800,1558,133,1808,1809,1810,246,134,1804,1803],"class_list":["post-2095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-generational-of-place","category-of-place","category-poems","category-short-form-musings","tag-bread-crumbs","tag-dogs","tag-encounters","tag-errands","tag-grocery","tag-hearts","tag-interactions","tag-intergenerational-conversations","tag-july","tag-market","tag-opi","tag-pajamas","tag-ramona-quimby","tag-shopping","tag-summer","tag-toenails","tag-toes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2095"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2101,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions\/2101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}