Tamitha Tarice Walker
3003 North Charles St. Apt 405A
Baltimore, MD 21218
(410) 516-2514
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If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other
people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.
Audre Lorde
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A Strange Beautiful Woman
A strange beautiful woman
met in the mirror
the other night.
Hey,
I said,
What are you doing here?
She asked me the same thing.
Marilyn Nelson Waniek
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We Wear the Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile,
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To Thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh, the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
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Being walkers with the dawn and morning
Walkers with the sun and morning,
We are not afraid of night,
Nor days of gloom,
Nor darkness,
Being walkers with the sun and morning.
Langston Hughes