July 1, 2019
156: after the reading
July 1, 2019
156: after the reading
after the reading
by Lucille Clifton
Read the automated transcript.
tired from being a poet
i throw myself onto
Howard Johnson’s bed
and long for home,
that sad mysterious country
where nobody notices
a word i say, nobody
thinks more of me or less
than they would think of any
chattering thing; mice
running toward the dark, leaves
rubbing against one another,
words tumbling together
up the long stair, home,
my own cheap lamp i can switch off
pretending i’m at peace there
in the dark. home. i sink at last into
the poet’s short and fitful sleep.
"after the reading" by Lucille Clifton, from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LUCILLE CLIFTON, 1965-2010 by Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 2012 by Lucille Clifton. Used by permission of BOA Editions.