Lucille Clifton




she understands me

it is all blood and breaking, 
blood and breaking. the thing 
drops out of its box squalling 
into the light. they are both squalling, 
animal and cage. her bars lie wet, open 
and empty and she has made herself again 
out of flesh out of dictionaries, 
she is always emptying and it is all 
the same wound the same blood the same breaking.