In the Third Month

Ray, David

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Coulehan, Jack
  • Date of entry: Jan-17-1995

Summary

Three months after his son's death, the author is driving by "the storefront where we found his blue Toyota." He is simply doing errands, nothing special, but suddenly "the tears pour down / as I think how much he wanted to be a man . . . . "After the death, the author found his son's books, including "one stamped in gold but with all the pages blank."

Commentary

This 19 line poem is a powerful expression of a father's longing and grief for his dead son. We never learn exactly what happened--an accident? suicide? The father's tears simply break through the veneer of his daily life.

Primary Source

Sam's Book

Publisher

Wesleyan Univ. Press

Place Published

Middletown, Conn.

Edition

1987