June 16, 2020

covid-19: day 95 | US: GA | info | act

won’t you celebrate with me
By: Lucille Clifton (1993)

won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman 5
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight 10
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

seeker of visions
By: Lucille Clifton

what does this mean.
to see walking men
wrapped in the color of death,
to hear from their tongue
such difficult syllables? 5
are they the spirits
of our hope
or the pale ghosts of our future?
who will believe the red road
will not run on forever? 10
who will believe
a tribe of ice might live
and we might not?

homage to my hips
By: Lucille Clifton (1980)

these hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don’t fit into little
petty places. these hips 5
are free hips.
they don’t like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do. 10
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top! 15