poem of the day 03.17.16

$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.