Muriel Rukeyser




Boys of These Men
Full Speed

      for Jane Cooper

Boys of these men
        full speed across free,
        my father’s boyhood eyes.
        Sail-skating with friends
        bright on Wisconsin ice
        those years away.

Sails strung across their backs
        boys racing toward
        fierce bitter middle-age
        in the great glitter of
        corrupted cities.
        Father, your dark mouth
        speaking its rancor.

Alive not yet, the girl
        I would become
        stares at that ice
        stippled with skaters,
        a story you tell.

Boys of those men
        call across winter
        where I stand and shake,
        woman of that girl.