Poetic Obituaries: In one of the most explicit examples

of this, "hag riding," from The Terrible Stories, the poet [Lucille Clifton] references the folklore concept of the title, which refers to being "ridden" or possessed by a hag, a witch who lives a normal life during the day. In this poem, the narrator rides the day, "galloping down the highway of my life":

. . .when i wake to the heat of the morning
something hopeful rises in me
rises and runs me out into the road
and i lob my fierce thigh high
over the rump of the day and honey
i ride i ride

That declaration feels like a response to the poem that precedes it, "scar," where the mark of a surgery is called a "ribbon of hunger/and desire" and the "edge of before and after."

from Bookslut: Lucille Clifton's Lasso

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