Severed Feet Playing Transcontinental Twister & the Red Hand of Ulster

I've been mesmerized by the story of severed feet washing up on the shores of BC. At last count, there have been six separate feet each in a large running shoe which have arrived over the last year.

From today's Globe, this amazing quote: "You can assume there are other lefts and rights floating out around there. There are a matching pair in the ocean – whether they show up or not is a different story."

Unlike that huge shipment of Nike running shoes that floated onto the Pacific shores of the U.S. which was the result of a cargo ship accident, authorities have, as yet, no explanation for these severed feet.


The symbol for Ulster, the northern Irish province is a red hand. The story goes that two kings were racing toward the island. Whomever touched the land first could claim it. One king cut off his right hand and threw it to shore. This is why the symbol is a red hand. Here's a slightly different version.

This doesn't explain the immigration of these individual feet involved in some transcontinental game of Twister.

The story begs for a short story, poem, or novel. A creative response of some kind. Who are (were) these people who lost feet? Who is cutting off the feet? Why? How? Is it a psychotic murderer? A cult?

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I give my left to the sea

others give their right

brother, father, sister, mother, tree

waves arrive to console me

I look out at the ocean

the world is a vast blue organ

heart, kidney, lungs, liver

waves console distant others

I wait for the sea