Two Poems - by Lucille Clifton

Lucille Clifton

adam thinking
 
she
stolen from my bone
is it any wonder
i hunger to tunnel back
inside desperate
to reconnect the rib and clay
and to be whole again
 
some need is in me
struggling to roar through my
mouth into a name
this creation is so fierce
i would rather have been born
 

eve thinking
 
it is wild country here
brothers and sisters coupling
claw and wing
groping one another
 
i wait
while the clay two-foot
rumbles in his chest
searching for language to
 
call me
but he is slow
tonight as he sleeps
i will whisper into his mouth
our names