Time to Kill

By Carl Rakosi 1903–2004 Carl Rakosi

a man and his dog

what fun

chasing twigs

into the water!

young girls bicycle by

in pairs and plaid shorts

a wind so soft

one’s whole

back tingles

with cilia

a gentle lake

the sun boils

at the center,

radiates the zone

for man

and lays

a healing pad

across his nape

an airplane small and flat

as a paper model

roars behind

the Virgilian scene

an old man

tips his straw hat

down to shade

his eyes,

pulls up his fishline

and moves on

to a new spot

the poor small

wood louse

crawls along

the bark ridge

for his life

Carl Rakosi, “Time to Kill” from The Collected Poems of Carl Rakosi (Orono: The National Poetry Foundation, 1986). Used with the permission of Marilyn J. Kane.

Source: The Collected Poems of Carl Rakosi (National Poetry Foundation, 1986)

Biography

The son of German Jewish parents, Carl Rakosi was born in Berlin in 1903, moving soon to Hungary following his parents’ separation in 1904. Immigrating with his father and stepmother to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1910, he eventually graduated from the University of Wisconsin (where he edited the literary magazine) and later earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania. Rakosi’s involvement in the . . .

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