These Blue Jeans

I wrote this poem in 2000 when I was living in Denver, CO. It’s about a strange phenomena in our country that is uniquely American and woven into the fabric of who we are and what we have become. The poem starts out by tricking the reader into thinking that the blue jeans and t-shirt represent youth, and rebellion. In reality the poem is about hate crimes, and domestic terrorism, and its main focus is on the heinous murder of James Bird in Texas. The end of the poem then speaks directly to domestic terrorism and the crimes perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City, and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in Littleton, Colorado. I throw some other stuff in there as well, but I don’t want to give the full meaning of the poem away.



              These Blue Jeans

You wear them like a personal message to the world.
And isn’t it simple how they slide on over your feet
And legs and up over your lower waist and other fine
Assets. These jeans, these blue denim dreams faded by
Time and soiled with memories.

And what about that T-shirt on the floor, the white
Cotton tee so hastily discarded the night before? Will
You put it on again, pick it up, pull it over, tuck it in?
Sure you will, why not embrace the smell of beer and
Sweat, fun beneath the summer moon, you bet.

Oh these jeans, you love them, you really do. The
Stories they could tell of running free and wild,
Chasing all the glories of youth, fowling amuck, as
It were, all in the name of libertine glee. Pursuing
Personal happiness while avoiding authority.

If only the world was not such a complicated place,
With good people being dragged down. Your worn
Out blue jeans have seen the fall, the social sins of
Your community chained down by laws. But, a Bird
Named James has atoned for it now.

Never mind the stains. The crimson smears of a few
Trace spots (they never wash out, not completely
Anyway). A little guilt perhaps, for an evening well
Spent, getting crazy with friends who understand,
Like that Harris kid, and his brother Tim.

Ten-to-one your blue jeans will see the day, and
Your white T-shirt too, if you want it that way,
Before the red flash of fame that will glow over you
(And your family, friends, lovers and commune)
When you kick-start the revolution of personal truth!