Miss Rosie
Lucille Clifton
When I watch you
wrapped up like garbage
sitting, surrounded by the smell
of too old potato peels
or
when I watch you
in your old man’s shoes
with the little toe cut out
sitting, waiting for your mind
like next week’s grocery
I say
when I watch you
you wet brown bag of a woman
who used to be the best looking gal in Georgia
used to be called the Georgia Rose
I stand up
through your destruction
I stand up
About Lucille Clifton’s poetry:
Clifton’s poetry celebrates the human capacity for love, rejuvenation, and triumph over weakness
and evil; it also exposes the myth of the American dream.
The speaker in this poem speaks kindly of “Miss Rosie,” recognizing her value as a person in
spite of the sad circumstances in which Miss Rosie seems to find herself now. The speaker
“stands up” to show respect for this woman. Write a poem about someone for whom you would
“stand up.” This poem will work best if you think of someone older than yourself—a
grandparent, parent, aunt, uncle, teacher, neighbor, family friend—whom you know well. (You
shouldn’t choose President Obama or Nelson Mandela unless you know him well.) Use some
repetition, as Clifton does, throughout your poem and in your final lines.
About Lucille Clifton:
 She was born in 1936 in New York, to Sam & Thelma
Moore Sayles.
 Sam worked for the New York steel mills; Thelma was
a launderer and housekeeper; Thelma Sayles (Lucille’s
mom) loved poetry wrote it in her spare time.
 Although neither parent was formally educated, they
provided their large family with an appreciation for and
an abundance of books, especially those by African
Americans.
 At age sixteen, Lucille entered college early, pursuing
a drama major at Howard University in Washington,
D.C. on a scholarship. She became the first person in
her family to finish high school and attend college.
 At Howard, she became friends with Toni Morrison
(who was Chloe Wofford at that time) and she met
Fred Clifton, whom she married in 1958.