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For a Nickel

for a nickel
little boys shined
his shoes
       he saw
       himself in them

nostalgiaremembertanka

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Michael Miers

January 31, 2015 at 10:07 PM

perfect stroke. the images remind me of some Thomas Wolfe. brilliant.

Carole Fairish

June 7, 2014 at 1:03 AM

a small poem with so much meaning Excellent write :)

Reason A. Poteet

June 3, 2014 at 2:34 PM

marvelous word play here, a genius of a write by a genius of a poet. Kudos

Jerry Bolton

June 3, 2014 at 9:54 AM

Oh yeah, I go back to those days. Red Foley put out the song, "Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy" as a tribute to those "shiners." Hah!

Connie Marcum Wong

June 3, 2014 at 2:14 AM

Congratulations on this little Gem being featured!

Michael Dom

April 1, 2014 at 3:59 AM

what a striking image - I'm glad I caught up with this. cheers!

Carrie Richards

March 24, 2014 at 3:28 PM

I love a tanka that can express so much in so few words !! Well done, Susan ! And thank you kindly for my placement in your "Blue's" contest!! I'm reading your list, and some great tail-end rhymes were terrific entries! Thanks again for the honor to be among them!

Robert Johnson

March 11, 2014 at 9:35 PM

A nice reflective write. :)

David Williams

March 2, 2014 at 9:05 AM

hey Susan love this excellent piece of work...David

Ralph Mason

January 27, 2014 at 7:57 PM

enjoyed your poem and the double meaning. Warm thoughts, Ralph

Sara Kendrick

January 9, 2014 at 10:26 AM

I like this one.Great work that you have penned about a time that I remember when there were shine boys.My father would give his nieces and nephews a nickle to clean his shoes and shine them also.That was back when people might take home 5 or 6 dollars a week for working 50 or 60 hour week.Some of the children faced some really hard times because of poverty..Thanks for the honor of placing in your contest.I appreciate you reading and thinking my work was worthy of being in your winners' listSara