The boy and I faced each other.
His feet are huge, in black sneakers
laced with white in a complex pattern like a
set of international scars. We are stuck on
opposite sides of the car, a couple of
molecules stuck in a rod of light
rapidly moving through darkness. He has the
casual cold look of a mugger,
alert under hooded lids. He is wearing
red, like the inside of the body
exposed. I am wearing dark fur, the
whole skin of an animal taken and
used. I look at his raw face,
he looks at my fur coat, and I don't
know if I am in his power-
he could take my coat so easily, my
briefcase, my life-
or if he is in my power, the way I am
living off his life, eating the steak
he does not eat, as if I am taking
the food from his mouth. And he is black
and I am white, and without meaning or
trying to I must profit from his darkness,
the way he absorbs the murderous beams of the
nation's heart, as black cotton
absorbs the heat of the sun and holds it. There is
no way to know how easy this
white skin makes my life, this
life he could take so easily and
break across his knee like a stick the way his
own back is being broken, the
rod of his soul that at birth was dark and
fluid and rich as the heart of a seedling
ready to thrust up into any available light.


I understand the basics of this poem! but i'd like to further understand it. (need for info) I would really like some views on it! PLEASE

Well, Olds sets the stage and prepares the reader
for the poem's ensuing subject matter in the first few lines---

"The boy and I faced each other.
His feet are huge, in black sneakers
laced with white in a complex pattern like a
set of international scars. We are stuck on
opposite sides . . . "

by showing constrasts face to face.
The reader can begin perceiving that this boy is most likely
a teenager by the size of his feet and given that,
an assumption can be made that the woman
speaking is much older since she is obviously
setting up a black / white polar opposite sort of situation.

Olds' words are carefully chosen, "complex," "international"
and "We are stuck" to imply a much larger issue at hand,
a situation in life that may be regretable but that exists
none-the-less and then diminishes the importance of all of that
in the same sentence, clever with her molecule analogy.

In other words, mankind is so miniscule and in the dark
about so many human issues.

This boy, given his looks, could be judged to be a mugger,
while she sits there in her fur coat, probably not being judged
at least not so boldly.

Of course this points to the hypocrisy of people who say the old cliche,
"You can't judge a book by its cover" then turn around and judge
someone by their looks. She is making a statement
about human nature in general, that she at least has seen
go on. This poem is an objection to that sort of hypocrisy,
even within herself.

She is going over things in her mind as she sits there.
The poem's technique is to use the concept of one talking
to oneself as its delivery method. She debates who is in control,
the "mugger" who can overpower her, or her by her affluence---
two very different forms of control---one is physical, the other
societal (is that a word?).

And then Olds beefs up the poem with what comes next---

"And he is black
and I am white, and without meaning or
trying to I must profit from his darkness,
the way he absorbs the murderous beams of the
nation's heart, as black cotton
absorbs the heat of the sun and holds it. There is
no way to know how easy this
white skin makes my life, . . . "

She realizes openly to her audience which is cleverly her and us, the readers, this young man's bloodlines and heritage,
that his ancestors may have slaved in cotton fields
for the white person's benefit. She makes us feel the heat
of the south, the perspiration of it all while at the same
time admitting for most of us that we can't even imagine
what another person's life is really like.

And on and on . . .

Lisa



Post Edited (02-08-05 10:45)

Interesting interpretation, thanks, Lisa. I see some typos in the posted piece. Faced should be face, international should be intentional, for example. Here is a link for a cleaner copy:

[www.poetrymagazines.org.uk] />
At risk of once again being accused of having my brain in my pants, I have to say I see some sexual innuendo(e)s in it: huge feet, hooded lids, dark fur, rod of light moving through darkness, thrusting seedling, and the like. That's just me, though. Others may see racial inequality themes, or many others.

I certainly see those connections Hugh.
Do you think there is something sexual going on here
in this poem, specifically?

Lisa

Like I say, I almost always do. In this case, I merely see those overtones, nothing overtly relevant to the racial issues.