
This is a metaphor for more than a few lives. The terse economy of the poem makes it work so well. I love it.

The trick is not to use odour eaters, so that you can just follow the smell to the missing shoe -- problem solved. Maybe my family is stinkier than yours though.
I agree wholeheartedly with Norm -- the simplicity of this, and the fact that the metaphor can be applied to bazillions of situations, makes it a universal winner.