on market streets in Lagos, barefeet boys call
"Shoe-shine 3 naira"
as men in shoes walk by
boys wearing shorts and shirts
colored rags blown by the breeze
trying to tease the heat away
bata-tan boys move mountains
or pretend to be them
to get cash to buy a kit
hoping to make enough on the street
so they won't have to eat in some trash heap
they were their smiles loudly, if not proudly
the sun makes long days on market streets
shoe-shine boys sit in sweat
wishing they were wearing
the shoes they hold in small thin hands to shine
when even the sun gets tired and leaves the street
they take their kits and walk to the bridge
under which they sleep, dust from the street
between their toes, covering them and their bare feet
while men walk home to houses wearing shoes
with polished pride.
Comments
Nice work...
You show the disparity between people of a country so poor, that a rich man has shoes, and a poor man doesn't. Boys dreaming of the shoes they polish and sleeping under bridges. Will there ever be a day, when all men have shoes? It seems like a dream, where all men will attain a level of satisfaction equal to each other. Is that the goal? If it is, then we should never be satisfied, because then we will stop reaching for the stars. The question is, do the shoes we wear, determine the man?
I think that one day, any man who desires shoes will be able to have them. There will be no more sleeping under bridges, and everyone will have enough to eat. But we should not give up looking for better shoes or tastier food. I feel all of those emotions here. ~ Geezer.
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Shoe Shine Boys
Hello, Cathy,
This poem is wonderfully in motion - I feel as if I'm walking along, watching the action unfold. Most of the senses are used here, which brings the reader directly into the poem. A very observant glance of life on this street, with these boys. Full of human emotion and interaction. A remarkable poem.
Thank you,
L