A Story Is Told As Much By

I Know I Am Made From This Earth, As My Mother's Hands Were Made From This Earth, As Her Dreams Came From This Earth And All That I Know, I Know In This Earth, The Body Of The Bird, This Pen, This Paper, These Hands, This Tongue Speaking, All That I Know Speaks To Me Through This Earth.

Far More Frightening Than The Thought Of Dying Was The Experience Of Erasure Already Occurring In My Life. My Fear Of Becoming Someone Who Did Not Count.

Even In The Grimmest Of Circumstances, A Shift In Perspective Can Create Startling Change.

But Still, The Other Voice, The Intuitive, Returns, Like Grass Forcing Its Way Through Concrete.

Borrow A Child And Get On Welfare. Borrow A Child And Stay In The House All Day With The Child, Or Go To The Public Park With The Child, And Take The Child To The Welfare Office And Cry And Say Your Man Left You And Be Humble And Wear Your Dress And Your Smile, And Don't Talk Back.