The Heroes You Had as a Girl by Bronwen Wallace The heroes you had as a girl
Question:
The Heroes You Had as a Girl by Bronwen Wallace
The heroes you had as a girl
were always three grades ahead of you
taller than the boys in your own class
taller even than your brothers
and the layers of muscle ripening
under their thin shirts their jeans
made your palms itch
for something you didn't know how to explain
but wanted to sitting with your girlfriends
in the hot dry grass
at the edge of the parking-lot
where all day Saturday they worked on their cars
hunched over the greasy mysteries of their engines
occasionally raising their heads
their eyes flicking
to where you were included
as part of the landscape
Sundays they practiced more dangerous maneuvers
till your eyes stung with the smell
of oil and burning rubber
and once they built arches of flaming
orange crates you remember them spinning
through the air when one car missed
remember the screams that burned your throat
before you realized no-one was hurt
your voices fluttering like foolish birds
on the wild currents of their laughter
and now twenty years later the hero
who drove that car returns as unexpectedly
as the memory and just as out of place
you watch him study a display of bathroom fixtures
in the hardware department of Simpson-Sears
he's grown fat and balding
and you think how easy it would be
to walk right over tap him
on the shoulders say hello
remember me and if he didn't
you could laugh it off
at least you've kept your figure
that's not what stops you now
though something does
and as he walks away
you can feel the dry grass biting
the backs of your legs the uncomfortable
angle of your knees as you sat just so
practicing your own dangerous maneuvers
not being noticed not noticing
the other girls forgetting their names
the shapes of their faces reddening in the sun
(though you remember those burning arches
your throat tightening again around those foolish screams,
you think you could explain it now
and that's what stops you
knowing you want nothing less
than for him to turn
peel off his shirt to show you
burn scars on his chest
and in the sullen landscape of his eyes
you want the faces of those girls
your own among them burning
brighter than any fire
Requirement
What is the significance of this title?
What is the main idea of this poem?
What is the prevalent image of this poem?
What two words are used effectively in the poem?
Income Tax Fundamentals 2013
ISBN: 9781285586618
31st Edition
Authors: Gerald E. Whittenburg, Martha Altus Buller, Steven L Gill