Missed

He was the first of us to wear black sneakers. He could wear black sneakers and look cool. I could wear black sneakers and people would ask me, “Why the fuck are you wearing black sneakers?”

He wore fucking high-top black sneakers with jeans, with the tongues hanging out over his pant legs, and he pulled it off. I could wear a pair of Berlutis and have two dozen people tell me I’m tasteless within the first hour.

Seven years ago I stopped trying, because there was nobody left I wanted to compare myself to.