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  • The American Poetry Review

    FIVE POEMS

    Nov 01, 2022 3 minutes

    Begin With Me

    after Lucille Clifton

    I began like you. With what I was given,
    a mama, a third, a daddy, and a little brother
    I love like a corner piece of heaven.

    We were a poor people given nothing,
    we had to earn our life like we wanted our life.

    I knew my mama’s voice through all the other mamas’ voices.
    I knew my little brother’s lying
    like I knew our father’s lying,
    same song, higher key.

    I am alive living near some graves
    I share the last night with

    Death will make a space forthere’s love in that.

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