$8,000 shoes
ammar wants me
to see the $8,000 shoes
search it up! search it up! he yells
as he barrels toward me
he tries to abscond my computer
they’re lit! he declares
lit means cool these days
although i know another
meaning for the word
i think about how i’ll be lit
in a few hours time
but for now ammar and i are staring
at a foot locker web site
at a pair of red sneakers
that cost, in fact, eight grand
ammar stares at them
like one would a beautiful woman
or a sunset on venice beach
to me, the shoes are plain and dull
they’re ugly to be honest
puffy like moon boots
i’d rather spent eight grand silence
yo! what do you think about those?
ammar asks
all i can think to say is
who would spend eight grand on a pair of shoes?
he says
if you’re black
and from the ghetto
and rolling in bling
which seems all kinds of ironic to me
a kind of rap fantasy they sell online
but i go along and nod
the shoes have been blessed
by this year’s hip-hop god
and it’s been decades since i was fifteen
me and ammar, we stare at those shoes
like we’re going to buy a car load of them
those shoes as red as a whirling alarm
red as a dwarf sun bursting in the cosmos
or do dwarf suns just bubble
and freeze out?
i should probably look that up online
too. 
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