my dream about the second coming
mary is an old woman without shoes.
she doesn’t believe it.
not when her belly starts to bubble
and leave the print of a finger where
no man touches.
not when the snow in her hair melts away.
not when the stranger she used to wait for
appears dressed in lights at her
kitchen table.
she is an old woman and
doesn’t believe it.
when Something drops onto her toes one night
she calls it a fox
but she feeds it.
Lucille Clifton, “my dream about the second coming” from Next. Copyright © 1987 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.
Source: Next (BOA Editions, Ltd., 1987)