Roller Skates

Roller skates
Were primitive
Steel contraptions
Which fastened onto
The soles of our shoes
When I was a kid.
This was ages before
The advent of
Polyurethane wheels
And skate boards.
We were lucky
If our wheels
Spun at all
With the crude bearings
We had back then.
We needed
Those steep
Point Loma hills
In order to achieve
Any speed at all,
And speed was king then
Just as it is today.