Sharon Olds is one of my favorite poets. She writes a lot about gender, the female body, relationships. I have many collections of her work and really enjoy how she can take simple moments of life and help us look at them through a different lens. For instance, the poem, "Rite of Passage," below. My then five-year old son had a birthday party and there was a certain animus there. Boys were running around, screaming and hitting and it all seemed so out of control to me. I remember feeling some unspeakable dread as I watched the intensity with which one boy decapitated the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinata. This poem reminds me of that day. There is an innocence to children, but there is also a darker side of humanity that must be controlled, even at that age. It's all very Lord of the Flies.
Also check out the other poems I suggested at the end of the post!
Rite of Passage
Sharon Olds
As the guests arrive at our son’s party
they gather in the living room—
short men, men in first grade
with smooth jaws and chins.
Hands in pockets, they stand around
jostling, jockeying for place, small fights
breaking out and calming. One says to another
How old are you? —Six. —I’m seven. —So?
They eye each other, seeing themselves
tiny in the other’s pupils. They clear their
throats a lot, a room of small bankers,
they fold their arms and frown. I could beat you
up, a seven says to a six,
the midnight cake, round and heavy as a
turret behind them on the table. My son,
freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks,
chest narrow as the balsa keel of a
model boat, long hands
cool and thin as the day they guided him
out of me, speaks up as a host
for the sake of the group.
We could easily kill a two-year-old,
he says in his clear voice. The other
men agree, they clear their throats
like Generals, they relax and get down to
playing war, celebrating my son’s life.
"The Death of Marilyn Monroe"
"The Race"
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