Ovation

He stood on his stoop and clapped her sneakers together hard, a sharp report, smacking right sole against left, trying to shock the mud from each complicated tread, spanking those expensive footprints until clay flakes and plugs ticked onto the boxwood’s leaves like a light filthy sleet from the rubber craters and crannies where they stuck weeks ago, until her shoes were banged clean though that didn’t stop his stiff-armed slow-motion applause with her feet’s emptied gloves, slapping mate against mate without missing a beat, half-wishing that hollow sound echoing off their neighbors’ houses could call her back.