Teenagers Are Free Verse Walking Around On

My Heart Broke All Over Again. I Wanted My Life Back, My Mama, But I Knew I Would Never Have That. The Child I Had Been Was Gone With The Child She Had Been. We Were New People, And We Didn't Know Each Other Anymore. I Shook My Head Desperately.

Hunger Makes You Restless. You Dream About Food - Not Just Any Food, But Perfect Food, The Best Food, Magical Meals, Famous And Awe-inspiring, The One Piece Of Meat, The Exact Taste Of Buttery Corn, Tomatoes So Ripe They Split And Sweeten The Air, Beans So Crisp They Snap Between The Teeth, Gravy Like Mother's Milk Singing To Your Bloodstream.

Two Or Three Things I Know, Two Or Three Things I Know For Sure, And One Of Them Is That To Go On Living I Have To Tell Stories, That Stories Are The One Sure Way I Know To Touch The Heart And Change The World

Mama Learned To Laugh With Them, Before They Could Laugh At Her, And To Do It So Well No One Could Be Sure What She Really Thought Or Felt.

Twenty Years After We Had Left So Fierce And Proud, We Were All Right Back Where We Had Started, Yoked To Each Other And The Same Old Drama.