sisters
for elaine philip on her birthday
me and you be sisters.
we be the same.
me and you
coming from the same place.
me and you
be greasing our legs
touching up our edges.
me and you
be scared of rats
be stepping on roaches.
me and you
come running high down purdy street one time
and mama laugh and shake her head at
me and you.
me and you
got babies
got thirty-five
got black
let our hair go back
be loving ourselves
be loving ourselves
be sisters.
only where you sing
i poet.
Copyright Credit: Lucille Clifton, "sisters" from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 1987 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted by permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.
Source: Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir (BOA Editions Ltd., 1980)