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Lucille Clifton Goes Walking

from Here With You by C.D. Onofrio

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lyrics

Lucille Clifton Goes Walking


There’s a black hawk circling at the banks of Buffalo
a diamond being shape in the belly of black coal
Lucille is out walking on a long memory
as the river keeps flowing
under black sky blooming
where the memory was buried
and Lucille started knowing
her words go out dancing
aware of wild blessings
under the grass growing

Lucille why do we choose the fear?
you yourself have seen something other so clear
in choosing life
and a vision of another way
walking on the bridge between starshine and clay

across the range Lucille named a deathless body
became the totem of a tribe
heard an ancient music
filled her ear with light
from across the ocean
her fingers in the land
in the winds of hate.
in the winds of blame
Lucille became a poem
when she was thrown into the flame

Lucille why do we choose the fear?
you yourself have seen something other so clear
in choosing life
and a vision of another way
walking on the bridge between starshine and clay

Lucy killed a white man on a white horse
who killed the sons of the mothers of the village
where she’d walked from new orleans to virginia
to be traded in chains and to work her days away
on a day, maybe may, Lucy hanged
blood ran down her body and settled on the grass
and the night turned black as the evening past

under long chains of names Lucy rides across the plains.
she can hear the chimes of freedom in the blackness of the night.
she can smell the wild grasses. she can feel the soft extravagance.
of the moonlight on its course of her body on the body
of a white horse under stars
as she cries “ I ride, I ride!”
from Dahomey to Depew
from ashes and from blood.
she pronounces something new

credits

from Here With You, released November 24, 2020

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C.D. Onofrio image

C.D. Onofrio Niagara Falls, Ontario

"troubadour wearing a crown of fire".

Imperfect music for imperfect people

Award winnning songwriter and published poet. Songs for dreamers, contemplative dancers, broken romantics, laughing lunatics, seekers, souls with hard spots to reach, and anyone else who can give these songs a home. ... more

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