Lylanne Musselman is an award-winning poet, playwright, and visual artist. Her work has appeared in Poetry Breakfast, The Tipton Poetry Journal, The Indianapolis Review, and Pank, among others, and many anthologies. Musselman is the author of the poetry collection, It’s Not Love, Unfortunately (Chatter House Press, 2018). She’s the co-author of two other collections, Company of Women: New and Selected Poems (Chatter House Press, 2013), and Marriage Maps and Driven Destinies (Chatter House Press, 2023). She’s the author of seven poetry chapbooks including Staring Dementia in the Face (Finishing Line Press, 2023). She teaches writing at both the University of Indianapolis and Ivy Tech Community College, and writing workshops at Indiana Writers Center and E. B. Ball Center at Ball State. She’s currently working on several poetry collections.
                                           Paybacks

White clogs,
clip clopped
their way
through the
waitressing
days of my
youth. I loved
those clogs
with two inch
wooden platform
soles. Older
patrons warned,
I’d be sorry
someday,
wearing those
shoes to work,

but back in the
’70s I had no
concept of me
in my 60s
having to deal
with bunions
and other feet
problems
stemming
from my trendy
youth.



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