Generations
people who are going to be
in a few years
bottoms of trees
bear a responsibility to something
besides people
…………………. if it was only
you and me
sharing the consequences
it would be different
it would be just
generations of men
…………………. but
this business of war
these war kinds of things
are erasing those natural
obedient generations
who ignored pride
………………………. stood on no hind legs
………………………. begged no water
………………………. stole no bread
did their own things
and the generations of rice
of coal
of grasshoppers
by their indivisibility
denounce us
love rejected
hurts so much more
than love rejecting;
they act like they don’t love their country
no
what it is
is they found out
their country don’t love them.
Lucille Clifton
from Good Woman: Poems and Memoir 1969-1980
University of Massachusetts Press, 1980