miss rosie
when i watch you wrapped up like garbage sitting, surrounded by the smell of too old potato peels or when i watch you in your old man's shoes with the little toe cut out sitting, waiting for your mind like next week's grocery i say when i watch you you wet brown bag of a woman who used to be the best looking gal in georgia used to be called the Georgia Rose i stand up through your destruction i stand up
Credit
Copyright ©1987 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted from Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., 260 East Ave., Rochester, NY 14604.
Author
Lucille Clifton

Lucille Clifton, the author of Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000 (BOA Editions, 2000), which won the National Book Award, was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1999.
Date Published: 1987-01-01
Source URL: https://poets.org/poem/miss-rosie