Boys in the Boat

 

 

Boys in the Boat

 

They heard a voice

no one else could hear.

 

or maybe a whisper.

Not children of excess

 

with names like Bobby, Joe, Roger and Don

Jim, Gordy, Johnny and Chuck.

 

From farms, orchards and shipyards

they acted out of hunger to be the best

and some of them knew hunger all too well.

 

Their inner strength proved stronger than

upbringings designed for their biggest day

and weather that assured their defeat.

 

I look to them and know

that all we can be is nothing

more than what we can see.

 

Hardscrabble country kids

took hitler to task and showed

him that all the privilege in the world

can’t buy victory if your heart is empty.

 

 

 

 

4 thoughts on “Boys in the Boat

  1. I love how far this poem travels, from the initial whispers the lines describe of longing and ambition, to the powerful final stanza of resistance:
    took hitler to task and showed
    him that all the privilege in the world
    can’t buy victory if your heart is empty.

    Well done!

    1. Thanks Jeanne!
      Honestly I thought my poem was terrible until I read your comment which caused me to reread it for the first time…and with help from your perspective…I like it.
      So thanks for the shape shift of perspective for me!

      I read your Wildfires…which is spooky and real…as if the ghost of what is happening now is calling out to us from the past, present and future all at once…
      Pay attention is the lesson I get from it.
      Well done!!!

  2. Thank you Caitlin!
    Jeanne got me to reread this for the first time by her kind comments…and it was better than I thought. And now you remind me that this is the whole point of the Marathon…to write things you may have never done – were it not for the prompts. So thanks for The Marathon, the prompts and your comment!
    I just read your poem The Covid Years
    It gives me a vivid picture of what it must be like to keep some semblance of sanity to have small kids right now.
    What a challenge!
    Thank you!

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