Pathology of Patriarchy: A Search for Clues at the Scene of the Crime

The ruling class, the fascists, and the cisheterosexists are afraid of Black revolt: it threatens their property interests.
— Read on pinko.online/web/trans-survival

To understand the great body of work that Lucille Clifton left after her death in 2010—the evolving body, for more poems are being excavated all the time—you must understand that Black history informs much of her work. There is the generous verse she offered everyone, regardless of racial or gender identification. This was her benediction, and because of that gift, many want to read disembodied, deracinated impulses in Clifton’s poems, seeking a so-called universal meaning.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/154884/go-back-and-fetch-it

i’m ready to dance to have a good time
inrly wanna get out of my mind
i’m down to do i’m down to rhyme
and everyone lookin at me kind 
of

take your time on the sunday sidewalk 
it’s okay to slow down to enjoy it take
a breath a step another avenue talk
like it’s just impossible to fake

i knew it couldn’t last but it was fun 
to pretend for a while anyway 
it’s not like they had a gun to our head
it’s just something we like to say 

there is no other place to put it
at this point honestly all i can do
is put it here and hope it don’t bleed
too much and too little and too tough
to keep in the pit of your stomach
at the bottom of you is where it goes
thundering your abdomen
new dreams dead dreams red dreams
christmas lights
bathing with war criminals
the sound richochets 
r - aching 
gathering 
the petrified remains of what used to be
the petrified remains of what used to be
the petrified remains of what used to be