I did then what I knew best, when I knew better, I did better. Maya Angelo - Maya Angelou

If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.

Nathaniel Hawthorne says, "Easy reading is damn hard writing." I try to pull the language into such a sharpness that it jumps off the page. It must look easy, but it takes me forever to get it to look so easy.

In order to avoid this bitter end, we would all have to be born again, and born with the knowledge of alternatives. Even then?