Race and Gender
The speaker notes that she has faced extraordinary challenges on the basis of being "nonwhite and a woman." The word "nonwhite," rather than any specific racial category, means that identity is defined through negation (Clifton herself was African American). This speaks to the way in which racist exclusion has shaped this speaker's reality. Meanwhile, the speaker describes herself as having been born in "Babylon." This is a reference to the Biblical Psalm 137, which describes the anguish of the Jewish exile in the ancient city of Babylon. Here, "Babylon" represents both the literal exile of the African-American diaspora, and the more abstract state of homelessness and persecution that the speaker suffers as a result of her race and gender. Despite struggling with these coexisting forms of abuse, the speaker says, she has managed to survive.
Survival
This poem is an ode to a type of triumph that may seem at first glance to be unremarkable—indeed, even taken for granted. The speaker, first shyly and then proudly, asks the reader whether they will join her in celebrating the fact that she has not yet been destroyed or killed (either literally or figuratively). She lists the interlinked reasons why this survival is a worthwhile cause for celebration: she faces racialized and gendered oppression, she has had nobody to model herself off of, and she has had to fight and work simply to "shape" her circumstances into livable ones. In general, her circumstances have made mere survival a hard-won accomplishment. For those who have faced unfair odds, the speaker asserts, survival itself deserves celebration and joy.
