Saturday at the Canal

In Soto’s poem, the youth of the two teenagers is linked to an innocent wildness that is encapsulated both in the liminal space of adolescence and the restlessness of the time period. The speaker states in the first line that he is 17 when the poem takes place. The age itself is significant to the conflict in the poem – he is old enough to drive, to spend time with a friend by the canal, and to think for himself—he is almost ready to leave home. But he is not yet 18, and he doesn’t have an adult’s freedom. He must still finish high school, he must live with his family, and he can only watch the water flow out of town and dream of where it leads instead of following it himself as he so longs to do. Indeed, his youth is what draws him to the excitement of places like San Francisco and ignites his desire to see the larger world, but it is also what prevents him from doing so.

The imagery of the poem continues to shape and enhance this theme. The pent-up energy of the two teenagers throwing stones is contrasted with the seeming unrelatable oldness of the teachers who were “Too close to dying to understand” (Line 5) his teenage angst.