Lucille Clifton




lucifer morning-star to man-kind
after the fall: in like kind

bright things
winged and unwinged
fall still
through the dark closets of night.

the hand that made them
made you, made me:
the same perfect reckless hand.

will you still insist
you cannot understand
how it is possible to stumble,

one eye filling with darkness,
the other bright with heaven-light,
with its unreachable unbearable glory?