Lucille Clifton's Ouija Board

We weren’t sure.
We asked the oracle—miracle of the mercurial.

Don’t buckle, reader.

Lucille utilized it religiously—
summoning spirits, invoking ghosts

as she conjured the departed
in their alchemy with questions. Lit beeswax candles

circling her abundant garden

of greens and sweet potatoes, prepared
to reach beyond arias of the flesh.

You will remember, reader, she was wild with divinity—
prophetic, the seer we all seek to learn from.

To be taught by the mistress
of soothsayers

is to hang your senses out
in the tallest trees, closer to clouds, for devotions

with her soul, her six children, her six toes
on each foot, that extreme depth

of gentleness, as she blesses the boats
before departing the harbor

of the dead.

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Mary Morris is the author of four books of poetry, most recently, Lanterns in the Night Market (2025). Her poems are published in North American Review, Poetry Magazine, Boulevard, and Prairie Schooner. She has received a number of awards, including the Rita Dove Award, Wheelbarrow Book Prize (selected by Leila Chatti), and the New Mexico Book Award. Mary has been invited to read her work at the Library of Congress, which aired on NPR.