Problem
"Late for Doubleheader, 1970"
My older brother's hair hung long and ragged as a crow's wing.
He climbed the hundred-foot fir tree in the vacant lot
in his powder blue, striped Ladner Fisherman fastball uniform
until eventually I couldn't see his cleats against the sun.
He climbed out of the goodness of his heart
(our mother would have said, out grandmother)
to rescue a starling that had somehow snagged
itself on a bough, swinging like a burning censer
In the wind. It cried and cried.
The tomcats shook like kids under a pinata.
I stood by the trunk, squinting. My brother,
the dark angel in pastels, disappeared, lost
as one of Franklin's men1 in the rigging.
He climbed out of the goodness of his heart
and left me down here with the years
and the tiny black shadow of the starling
searching over the burnt grass like a hand
on the bedcovers for a pack of smokes
in the dark for another hand, for love.
My brother always climbs out of his heart.
But it's the starling's shadow I wear
In the world, and cry, though my hand
that summer day reached out and found
The blood of my kind in the glove.
Answer the following questions in good sentences.
I. Why is the boy "late for the doubleheader"?
II. The following passage contains several similies. Identify them and explain the significance of each.
"searching over the burnt grass like a hand
on the bedcovers for a pack of smokes
in the dark for another hand, for love. "
III. What is the "starling's shadow I wear"?
IV. What is the narrator's feeling toward his older brother?