poem to my uterus

Lucille Clifton

you uterus

you have been patient

as a sock

while i have slippered into you

my dead and living children

now

they want to cut you out

stocking i will not need

where i am going

where am i going

old girl

without you

uterus

my bloody print

my estrogen kitchen

my black bag of desire

where can i go

barefoot

without you

where can you go

without me

Lucille Clifton, "poem to my uterus" from Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 1991 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of BOA Editions, Ltd., boaeditions.org.

Poems by This Author

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so

blessing the boats by Lucille Clifton
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cutting greens by Lucille Clifton
curling them around

far memory by Lucille Clifton
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here rests by Lucille Clifton
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homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton
these hips are big hips.

it was a dream by Lucille Clifton
in which my greater self

jasper texas 1998 by Lucille Clifton
i am a man's head hunched in the road

miss rosie by Lucille Clifton
when I watch you

mulberry fields by Lucille Clifton
they thought the field was wasting

my dream about being white by Lucille Clifton
hey music and me only white

poem in praise of menstruation by Lucille Clifton
if there is a river

sisters by Lucille Clifton
me and you be sisters...

sorrows by Lucille Clifton
who would believe them winged

the earth is a living thing by Lucille Clifton
is a black shambling bear

the lost baby poem by Lucille Clifton
the time i dropped your almost body down

the lost women by Lucille Clifton
i need to know their names

to my last period by Lucille Clifton
well, girl, goodbye

wishes for sons by Lucille Clifton
i wish them cramps.

won't you celebrate with me by Lucille Clifton
won't you celebrate with me

poem to my uterus

Lucille Clifton

Poems by This Author

Further Reading