The Red Shoes

To be an exile is to be banished. In Black’s poem, several of the characters can be perceived as exiles or displaced from their communities. This is exacerbated by life in their New York City neighborhood. In this Puerto Rican area, as indicated by the restaurant’s menu and its Spanish name, “the Embajada” (Line 4), “crack” (Line 12) cocaine usage was a problem. In the 1970s and 1980s, “crack” was widespread in such areas, and it was hard for many seeking help to find recovery options. The New York Times reported that a sit-in was necessary to get a drug treatment facility at St. Luke’s Hospital (See: Further Reading & Resources). Clearly, this part of the city was exiled by the more privileged.

The people in the community are also exiled. Isolated, they seem to be dangerous or lost to themselves and/or others. The speaker struggles to fix what’s broken, whether it is the “splintered floors” (Line 2) or a relationship, but their efforts meet with dead ends. The woman who “sing[s] a funny song” (Line 7) is exiled from those without disabilities by a “back [which] had been broken” (Line 9). Junior/Jesus is left adrift “after his church on Columbus failed” (Line 12) and starts using “crack” (Line 12). Irma’s odd clothing and mannerisms set her apart, as does her “suicide or / murder” (Lines 29-30). The partner of the speaker is kept in “St. // Luke’s on lockdown” (Lines 32-33), physically separated from the group.

Some of these people facing hurt find healing by reaching out to others. The speaker takes time to listen to the next-door lady’s “funny song” (Line 7). In a small act of sympathetic kindness, “Mr. Rodriguez [gives the speaker] a small plastic-wrapped / packet of Kleenex” (Lines 31-32) when the partner destroys their property. The speaker misses Junior/Jesus enough to pay respects at his graveside, even though they must hire a cab to get to the cemetery. Although tiny, these gestures show that the only solution to exile is to act with communal intention.