Summary and composition

Here, we will focus on the summary and composition of the poem “please don’t take my air jordans” by Reg E. Gaines.

Summary

A male speaker presents how important looks are for him, and his passion for the latest clothing and footwear items, such as Air Jordans, leather jackets, baseball caps, or fake Gucci backpacks. Presently, the speaker desires a pair of new shoes, the Air Jordan brand, from Nike. However, he does not have any money to buy them and stealing from the mall has become increasingly complicated because of the guards.

The speaker is sure his peers will judge him and laugh at him for wearing old sneakers. He thus decides to skip school on a Friday and rob somebody of their shoes using a gun. He eventually finds a boy wearing new Air Jordans and follows him into an alley where he shoots the youngster and takes his sneakers. Monday at school, the speaker feels cool thanks to his new sneakers, even though he had to kill somebody to get them. Suddenly, he realizes that he needs a new jacket. 

Composition

The composition of poems/songs refers to the way the text is structured externally (outer composition) in terms of form, and internally (inner composition) in terms of the content of ideas conveyed.

Outer composition

Written as a rap poem, “please don’t take my air jordans” is very colloquial in te...