runaway

I bought them in an airport
shoes
sandals really
how fitting
a new pair of shoes for running away
first steps out of a home that had turned against me
in shoes i'd never worn before
foreign touch felt so welcoming
after what had been familiar mutated itself into strangeness

my pale skin against their deep dark imposing color, 

looked like it could not belong to a person

who runs away

But I felt more at home in them,

more at home in sandals purchased in an airport,
than amongst the familiar scent of gym floors and science labs
the slam of lockers and the shuffle of foot steps bustling through once friendly halls
trapped
not anymore
far away
on a plane to anywhere but where I'd been
in a pair of new shoes
That I'd bought in an air port