Black boys became criminalized. I was in constant dread for their lives, because they were targets everywhere. They still are.

But her brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine, let alone plan for, the next day.

It was becoming a habit-this concentration on things behind him. Almost as though there were no future to be had. *Milkman*

I don't work. I keep telling people I'm unemployed. And I don't wash dishes, and I don't wash clothes, and I don't clean my house. Somebody else does that.

Let your face speak what's in your heart. When my kids walk in the room my face says I'm glad to see them.

I wanted to separate color from race. Distinguishing color - light, black, in-between - as the marker for race is really an error.

Here I am not the one to throw out. No one steals my warmth and shoes because I am small. No one handles my backside. No one whinnies like sheep or goat because I drop in fear and weakness. No one screams at the sight of me. No one watches my body for how it is unseemly. With you my body is pleasure is safe is belonging. I can never not have you have me.