Explain the symbolism in the poem, "Roller Skate Man" by Raymond Souster.

"Roller Skate Man" by Raymond Souster is about a
physically disabled man who uses a board mounted on roller skate wheels to navigate
through the streets of the city.

The author describes the
"roller skate man" as someone who has a disproportionately large head, compared to the
rest of his body, which is shriveled, with short "stumps" for legs. The device that this
man has engineered symbolizes the man's independence: his ability to move freely through
the streets of a society with others very different than himself. He wears gloves
because he uses his hands to propel himself on Queen Street: the gloves protect his
hands because the pavement is very rough.

The crowd that he
"travels with" is made up of the successful and wealthy, symbolized by "silk stockinged
legs" and "extravagant pleats," the fancy clothing he moves past. We don't receive any
other descriptions because as the "roller skate man" moves, these are the only things
his height allows him to see. Surely he is out of place socially with these people:
especially as he travels in a world that does not see trees and beautiful store windows
and fancy cars along his route. The symbols of his confined and lowly existence as he
moves along are found in "spit, old [cigarette] butts [and] chewed
gum."

The definition of " title="flotsam"
href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flotsam">flotsam"
is "useless or unimportant items; odds and ends" or "the part of the wreckage of a ship
and its cargo found floating on the water." " href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/jetsam">Jetsam"
refers to cargo that his thrown overboard to lighten a ship when it is in distress. When
the author has described the man's method of transportation, and the kinds of people he
passes and what he finds on the sidewalk, I get the impression that he is comparing the
man to the well-to-do that he passes. It seems that the author is stating that because
of his disability, people may see him as something "useless." The "roller skate man" may
be the "wreckage" of a man. However, those he passes are seen by the author as what was
intentionally discarded to ease the weight of a ship in distress.
Perhaps he is saying that the "roller skate man" has elevated himself by adapting his
physical limitations to the world so that he can get around, and most of the people on
that street are just floating along as if they have been abandoned: both the roller
skate man and those around him (the jetsam) are in the water:
symbolically, neither group is in a good place.