miss rosie
By Lucille Clifton

when I watch you
wrapped up like garbage
sitting, surrounded by the smell
of too old potato peels
or
when I watch you
in your old man's shoes
with the little toe cut out
sitting, waiting for your mind
like next week's grocery
I say
when I watch you
you wet brown bag of a woman
who used to be the best looking gal in Georgia
used to be called the Georgia Rose
I stand up
through your destruction
I stand up

miss rosie Copyright ©1987 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted from Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 by Lucille Clifton, with permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.

Copyright © 1997-2001 by Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.

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