Poem #3: "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 image that Sharon Old's "Rite of Passage" depicts for me is a group of little kids with their sleeves rolled up, about to tussle. It's interesting to me how the speaker of the poem, who is the mother of one of these little men, can see these kids as sort of small figurines of men of the future or amateur business men in the making.

The actions of the kids, such as eyeing each other, looking like "a room of small bankers", folding their arms and frowning, and this competitiveness of trying to let one know that they could easily be beaten by the other proves true to this model of grown, business like men. Kids pick up on things very easily and so it made me think that maybe they got this behavior from watching their fathers or male figures. Lately, what I've come to believe is the idea that kids are now pushed into growing up too early; for them to already look like bankers at the kid's birthday party is kind of sad. When the speaker's son suggests that "We could easily kill a two-year-old", it's scary to think of that sort of violence coming out of a little kids mouth and even more upsetting to realize that they already know about such things and that their force could outweigh that of at two year old. What I don't understand is how the mother couldn't say anything about it.