"Rites of Passage" by Sharon Olds.

Rites of Passage A poem by Sharon Olds Minor Generals - By Henning Thiel Sharon Olds' "Rites of Passage" is about the hidden adults in the children that come to her son's birthday party. All the children are boys and display male adult personality traits that remind the speaker of small mighty Generals of war. The tone comes across sad, ironic and disillusioned about the future of the children, like they are doomed to follow …

…different, it doesn't follow the rules of poetry and the subject matter is interesting. The two colliding, yet complementing themes of innocence and adulthood provide some food for thought, instead of just a rhyme about a pretty flower [for example]. Sharon Olds discovers something about children, captures this in her poetic words and shares it with us in an interesting manner. This makes poetry more fun to read than 'the cat sat on the mat'.