Table of Contents
I
Fade to Black 3
Why Persephone Should Be a Black Name 4
East 149th Street (Symphony for a Black Girl) 6
Complected 7
My Monthly 8
Ode to Now 'n' Laters 9
Fifteen 11
Dear Diary 12
I'll Be There 16
Scar Tissue 18
Akron at Night 19
Free 20
Mercy 21
The Handicapped Stall 23
Sixteen 25
Brown Sugar 26
II
Understood 31
Membrane 32
Wrath 33
Passover 34
Searching 35
Nights at Maya's 37
Southern Cross 38
Piece 39
Perspective 40
The kink in the fantasy 41
One Night Stand 42
Morning When a Dream Lingers 43
Kiwi 44
Church 45
Process 46
After Earl Came Home 49
Work Calendar 50
Lily 51
The blond on his arm 54
Odalisque 55
Gaze 56
She Talks to Michael Fassbender 57
The small of my back (your hand here) 59
Permission 60
He Can Get The Panties 61
The Dark Lady Speaks 63
III
Haint 67
Charting 68
Knell 70
The First IVF Fails 71
Going Through With It 72
Bough breaks 73
Hunger 74
Slip Skin Study: Broken 75
At 5 weeks 76
The Return of the Prodigal Mother 77
Induced 78
Letdown 79
Family Bed 80
All the King's Horses 81
Thick of It 82
Two Glasses of Milk 83
Lament for Things Found Under a Child's Bed: 84
Notes 85
Biography 87
