"The Sweetness of Bobby Hefka" by Phillip Levine from the collection What Work Is

All morning, I've been thinking about this poem, reciting lines outloud on my drive to work. 

Bobby Hefka.  In the world of narrative poetry, I have always loved that name--Bobby Hefka.  This remarkable poem--one of many remarkable poems from Levine's book What Work Is--has always been one of my favorites.  The title poem of the collection may be one of the greatest poems of the 20th century.

My wonderful colleague, Dr. Caroline Simard, writes often about globalization, this morning citing an article that talks about American students searching for jobs in Bejing and Shanghai now that American jobs have dried up.  Her smart comments make me think even more about Levine's working class poetry, almost prescient in its ability to describes the fall of industrial middle America, and now more poignant because it represents the end of jobs for all classes, regardless of race or creed.  This is about the disappearance of every class, permanently. 

Bobby Hefka knew all about globalization long before there was such a word.  A working class youth in Detroit, Hefka learned early about the components of globalization--class, race, religion, prejudice, competition, hope.  But, what he really understood is the constancy of love.  I find myself wondering as I write the blog--what place does love have in the carnage that represents the end of the livelihoods of so much of the middle and working class in Detroit, and throughout the midwest.

So, here it is--

The Sweetness of Bobby Hefka From What Work Is, by Philip Levine

What do you make of little Bobby Hefka
in the 11th grade admitting to Mr. Jaslow
that he was a racist and if Mr. Jaslow
was so tolerant how come he couldn't
tolerate Bobby? The class was stunned.
"How do you feel about the Jews?"
asked my brother Eddie, menacingly.
"Oh, come on, Eddie," Bobby said,
"I thought we were friends." Mr. Jaslow
banged the desk to regain control.
"What is it about Negroes you do not like?"
he asked in his most rational voice,
which always failed to hide the fact
he was crazy as a bed bug, claiming
Capek's RUR was far greater than Macbeth.
Bobby was silent for a long minute, thinking.
"Negroes frighten me, " he finally said,
"they frighten my mother and father who never
saw them in Finland, they scare my brother
who's much bigger than me." Then he added
the one name, Joe Louis, who had been
busy cutting down black and white men
no matter what their size. Mr. Jaslow
sighed with compassion. We knew that
before the class ended he'd be telling us
a great era for men and women was imminent
if only we could cross the threshold
into humanitarianism, into the ideals
of G. B. Shaw, Karel Capek, and Mr. Jaslow.
I looked across the room to where Bobby
sat in the back row next to the windows.
He was still awake, his blue eyes wide.
Beyond him the dark clouds of 1945
were clustering over Linwood, the smokestack
of the power plant gave its worst
to a low sky. Lacking the patience to wait
for combat, Johnny Mooradian had quit school
a year before, and Johnny was dead on an atoll
without a name. Bobby Hefka had told the truth
--to his own shame and pride--and the rains
came on. Nothing had changed for a roomful
of 17 year olds more scared of life than death.
The last time I saw Bobby Hefka he was driving
a milk truck for Dairy Cream, he was married,
he had a little girl, he still dreamed
of going to medical school. He listened
in sorrow to what had become of me. He handed
me an icy quart bottle of milk, a gift
we both held on to for a silent moment
while the great city roared around us, the trucks
honking and racing their engines to make him move.
His eyes were wide open. Bobby Hefka loved me.

Comments

[Anne Caston]

Jody Mahoney! Is that really you, looking so young still and beautiful as when I last saw you in 1995 at Warren Wilson College? You are a sight for sore eyes.

I'm still teaching at the University of Alaska in Anchorage and, when I'm not teaching, I'm at home in Pennsylvania with Ian. We bought an old farmhouse here and have been renovating it: what a money pit! But it was love at first sight and we're really pleased with it.

Drop me a line sometime and tell me what you're up to these days. You can find me at anne.caston@gmail.com or at my blog www.savannahbluesshop.blogspot.com

Your friend from waaaaay back,
Anne Caston

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