line "chest narrow as the balsa keel of a model boat". Balsa wood is very soft and tender, delicate in its strength, and can be molded and bent to the whim of the crafter of the "model boat." The freckles and the balsa wood are symbols of the way the mother feels; that as a parent, she still has some control over his destiny and over who he will become and what he will do. She is the baker, she is the builder of the model boat. In fact, the mother even recollects how like an infant he still is as she reflects on his birth and "the day they guided him out of me", representing her denial at her son's pending adulthood.The son's rite of passage to manhood, his acceptance as the role of host and peacemaker and unifier, is a shocking one to both speaker and reader. To unite his comrades, he comments "We could easily kill a two-year-old" and the tone of the poem changes finally to one of heartlessness at the blunt brutality of the statement. The mother realizes then that the young boys, the future "Generals" who will soon live as men do "playing war", are far from innocent. Her rite of passage is a complete and sad transition from the mother of a child that she has some control over to the parent of a independent man, who will make his own choices and fight his own battles....
