sorrows
by Lucille Clifton

who would believe them winged
who would believe they could be

beautiful who would believe
they could fall so in love with mortals

that they would attach themselves
as scars attach and ride the skin

sometimes we hear them in our dreams
rattling their skulls clicking

their bony fingers
they have heard me beseeching

as i whispered into my own
cupped hands enough not me again

but who can distinguish
one human voice

amid such choruses
of desire

I'm not sure who she is referring to in the poem. I began by thinking the obvious, that she was talking about sorrows and using personification. Now I think she might actually be referring to people. Somehow these characters are categorized differently than humans because they are not considered mortal. It would still make sense that she could be referring to sorrows and addressing them as people. There is a lot of imagery in how she describes these sorrows and their relationships with humans who have to survive their sorrows. She addresses others that are praying for these sorrows to go away in the last three stanzas. The author was an African American woman who lived from 1936 on. She was referring to the very different conditions and obstacles someone in her condition and with her back ground could not avoid.

  https://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20588