RR to Poetry (final)

“The red emblem of michael looked as if it could fly”.  This is one of the many examples Reg Gaines, author of the poem “Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans”, uses to show how Air Jordans taunt people.  Gaines uses the importance of Air Jordans in the poem as symbolism.
Kids have always cared about their looks, but kids now, have taken it to another level.  Kids now a days feel like they have to dress up nicely.  And they don’t do it to impress girls, they do it to make sure they don’t get bullied.  A part of dressing up well, is the sneakers you wear.  If you’re not wearing a brand shoe like Nike, Jordan, Adidas, that’s eighty dollars or more, you’re most likely to get picked on.  There’s a flip side to that as well.  If you’re wearing a flashy sneaker, or a pair that stand out, you run the risk of being jumped by someone who wants them.  People are very greedy these days, and will do anything to look good.
The main character in this poem murders an innocent person for their new Air Jordans.  The main character is a teenager in poverty who lacks the money to buy expensive nice looking clothes.  In the beginning of the poem, the character is looking for new sneakers because is current ones are worn out and ratty-looking.  The speaker uses similes to show how much the character cares about his looks on the outside:  “but I really must get some new gear soon/or my ego will pop like a ten cent balloon”(Gaines 17-18).  The character decides he’ll have to murder someone for a new pair of “fly” shoes.  He then proceeds to ditch school and find his victim at the park.  Almost immediately he spots sneakers he likes, plain white Air Jordans.  He chases down the owner of the pair of Air Jordans, and shoots him in broad daylight.  Afterward he shows no sympathy at all, “the very next day I bopped into school/ with my brand new Air Jordans man I was cool/ I killed to get them but hey...I don’t care”(49-51).
I can make connections between “Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans” and incidents in real life.  In the poem, the main character killed someone to get his Jordans.  In real life there have been many cases where someone was murdered over exclusive, or new Jordan brand sneakers.      Two years ago a young man was murdered in Houston over his newly purchased Air Jordans.  According to the article “2 Charged In Killing Over Air Jordans”, “Neal Bland, 18, and Kegan Arrington, 19 are charged in the Dec. 21 shooting of Joshua Wood...”.  Bland and Arrington were both very young adults at the time and they committed a murder!  None the less over Air Jordans!
After reading this poem, I realized that the situation the main character put himself in sounded so familiar because you always here something like that happening on news when a limited edition Jordan sneaker releases to the public.  We care so much about these sneakers that we forget about the more important things in life, like how we are as people on the inside not the outside.  Hopefully readers can learn from this poem, and stop caring about how they look so much.

Christian, Carol. "2 Charged in Killing over Air Jordans." Houston Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers, 29 Dec. 2012. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.