The shoes for college become the shoes for work

Poem by Karima Brooke

We’re in a rush, with errands here and there.
The voice of Respect comes through the speaker,
his first breath makes us think this is urgent.
We tense: Rose without Thorns must concentrate
is this Buses Only, or Low Emissions –
are we in the right place, but wrong time?

‘Mum, can Straight and Narrow Way have my shoes?
You know, my college shoes. He needs them now.’
They study Business, Finance and Media.
Respect had dreams of studying Architecture,
Straight Way of being a crazy inventor.

But he’s the eldest of five, has two jobs,
studies shoe-horned in while Mum’s out at work.
At the bank where he stands to direct the flow
of mostly well-heeled, well-shod customers
the manager said: ‘Get black leather shoes,
or, I’m telling you, don’t come back next shift.’

The time-served Apprentice turned Freeman
holds his certificate and his spanner
in his hands. One bare foot, one with strong boot.
‘Through adversity to the stars’ he might say
had Latin been on his curriculum.

Have Respect and Straight and Narrow seen him,
this young man of bronze, hymn to advancement?
Does he still stand there, by the out-of-reach
Uni – once free – the closed swimming baths,
the Cathedral that charged admission?

Respect gave Straight and Narrow the shoes.
‘Keep them, I don’t wear them anyway’.
His friend hurried to the bank, childcare, or pizzeria.
And the Lord said: ‘Why do you crush my people,
and grind the faces of the poor to dust?’

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