Rosie used to be the best looking girl in her hometown, so she was known as the Georgia Rose. The poet Lucille Clifton describes the contrast between Rosie's looks in her youth and her appearance in her old age, probably after many painful experiences that have made her lose her mental faculties, so that she now is a homeless woman. In spite of this change in her cirumstances and in her physical aspect, the poet acknowledges Rosie's worthiness as a human being.
