the location in which the area that they had lived. "To watch you slip like ice into strangers hands." (11) I believe that the poet is trying to say that if the baby was born then it would probably be given up for adoption, living in an orphanage or just abandoned. "You would have fallen naked as snow into winter." (12) Since this was an unprepared problem, the baby would not have enough clothing to wear. "If you were here i could tell you these and some other things." By saying this, she means that if you (the baby) were here, you would have lived a miserable life.
             The third and final group deals with how she has learned from this situation and how she promises to improve her ways. There are symbols and personification within this last group in which I will be discussing later on in my paper. "If i am ever less than a mountain for you definite bothers and sisters let the rivers pour over my head let the sea take me for a spiller of seas" (15-19) The poet is making a promise to her unborn child that if she does not treat her living children right (the unborn child's brothers and sisters), then she wants punishment. "let black men call me stranger always," (19-20) means that she wants to stay far away from men. She wants nothing to do with men because that is how this tragic incident happened. Lucille Clifton uses the term "black men," because she for one is black and she wants everyone who reads her poem to know that she is black. "for you never named sake," represents the unborn child. The poet is saying this because she has changed her lifestyle for her unborn child.
             The imagery used within this poem deals with the strengths of the waters as well as the coldness of winter. "What did I know about waters rushing back, what did i know about drowning or being drowned," represents the sense of feeling. One could almost feel the power ...