Lucille Clifton – 11/10 Again

some say the radiance around the body

can be seen by eyes latticed against

all light but the particular. they say

you can notice something rise

from the houseboat of the body

wearing the body’s face,

and that you can feel the presence

of a possible otherwhere.

not a mystical, they say, but human,

human to lift away from the arms that

try to hold you (as you did them)

and, brilliance magnified,

circle beyond the ironwork

encasing your human heart.

 

Reading this now,  the poem works as her own elegy. Check out more poems from this collection - The Book of Light.