Grief

Lucille Clifton

begin with the pain

of the grass

that bore the weight

of adam,

his broken rib mending

into eve,

imagine

the original bleeding,

adam moaning

and the lamentation of grass.

from that garden,

through fields of lost

and found, to now, to here,

to grief for the upright

animal, to grief for the

horizontal world.

pause then for the human

animal in its coat

of many colors. pause

for the myth of america.

pause for the myth

of america.

and pause for the girl

with twelve fingers

who never learned to cry enough

for anything that mattered,

not enough for the fear,

not enough for the loss,

not enough for the history,

not enough

for the disregarded planet.

not enough for the grass.

then end in the garden of regret

with time's bell tolling grief

and pain,

grief for the grass

that is older than adam,

grief for what is born human,

grief for what is not.

From the GBCA family for:

Tyre Nichols and his family

Memphis

Baltimore

Monterey Park

Israel

Half Moon Bay

Oakland

And so many others.