By Mark Tulin
A worn pair of Converse High Tops
drape from a solitary wire
where the crows balance
and most people ignore.
I see the sneakers hang in the day
and upside down like a bat at night.
Happily and hopefully stuck,
a symbol of teenage revolt.
They look like a size ten.
I wonder what teenager wore them.
They still have tread on their soles,
just frayed around the edges.
It must have taken the kid hours to do,
choosing to immortalize such a thing.
Wanting to be free like a sneaker,
looking down at the world from a solitary wire.
Mark’s poetry and stories are his most effective ways of expressing himself. His upcoming poetry book, Awkward Grace, will be out in early 2020.
thedrabble.wordpress.com 
“free like a sneaker” <- Genius sentence, if you ask me. Good work, Mark.
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Incredible wording of a realistic vision
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Love the ambiguity of this… This shoe tossing over a wire is an act with multiple meanings https://www.reference.com/world-view/shoes-hanging-power-lines-mean-16fca680cad21664
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I’ve always wondered about this, for some reason I remember hearing it’s a tribute to a slain gang member. True of false, I’m not certain, but very nice writing.
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may hem, thanks for the link. Back in my day (the late 60s), sneakers on a wire didn’t seem to have such an angry and violent connotation, or perhaps I lived a sheltered life and wasn’t aware of it.
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Great observation of an urban tradition
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Beautifully said. An odd world-wide tradition which always makes me think of an exasperated mother saying ‘Where are your sneakers?’
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The sounds of a soft shoe shuffle
Sneak under a crows feathered ruffles
While a teenagers protest song is muffled
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Beautiful poem!
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