ANNOTATED POEM - FREE SHOES

Free shoes

The free pair of shoes stand in rows,

polished and black like coffins for small pets,

Lined with white.The evacuated children

Sit in rows eyeing the pairs,

Child after child after child, no parents

Anywhere near. When it's their turn,

They get a pair of new shoes

And the old ones are taken away.




Of course it is kind of the nice people

To give them the shoes. Of course it is better

To be here than where buildings

Explode and hurl down pieces of children.

Of course, of course. This life that has been

Given them like a task! This life, This love-

Black bright narrow broken-in shoe.