Sorry is the fool who ever underestimates my mother.

Shame ain't black, like dirt, like I always thought it was. Shame be the color of a new white uniform your mother ironed all night to pay for, white without a smudge or a speck a work-dirt on it.

Babies like fat. Like to bury they face up in you armpit and go to sleep. They like big fat legs too. That I know.

Ugly live up on the inside. Ugly be a hurtful, mean person.

Baby Girl," I say. "I need you remember everything I told you. Do you remember what I told you?" She still crying steady, but the hiccups are gone. "To wipe my bottom good when I'm done?" "No, baby, the other one. About who you are.

No one tells us, girls who don't go on dates, that remembering can be almost as good as what actually happens.

Down in the national news section, there's an article on a new pill, the 'Valium' they're calling it, 'to help women cope with everyday challenges.' God, I could use about ten of those little pills right now.