52 Poems: Week 26: Lucille Clifton

June 27 was Lucille Clifton's birthday so here is a poem to remind us of her and the strength of women we know and don't know.

the lost women
by lucille clifton 

i need to know their names

those women i would have walked with

jauntily the way men go in groups

swinging their arms, and the ones

those sweating women whom i would have joined

after a hard game to chew the fat

what would we have called each other laughing

joking into our beer? where are my gangs,

my teams, my mislaid sisters?

all the women who could have known me,

where in the world are their names?

i need to know their names those women i would have walked with jauntily the way men go in groups swinging their arms, and the ones those sweating women whom i would have joined after a hard game to chew the fat what would we have called each other laughing joking into our beer? where are my gangs, my teams, my mislaid sisters? all the women who could have known me, where in the world are their names? - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21309#sthash.ILSfLv9p.dpuf

i need to know their names those women i would have walked with jauntily the way men go in groups swinging their arms, and the ones those sweating women whom i would have joined after a hard game to chew the fat what would we have called each other laughing joking into our beer? where are my gangs, my teams, my mislaid sisters? all the women who could have known me, where in the world are their names? - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/21309#sthash.ILSfLv9p.dpuf