Fall: Completion -- full moon -- The nights cool. Maple leaves adopt their brilliant reds, yellows and oranges. Birds begin their long journey north. Horses don longer coats in preparation for colder weather. The golden rays of the sun ripen the wheat. It is a time of harvest and hard work. Our families gather to celebrate, sharing both abundance and satisfaction. We are maturing, facing the coming winter with courage. We realize the time has arrived for us to transform into a woman of destiny. Join our Best of Theme authors as they share the bounty of life.

Ada sat in the middle of the bus trying to disappear. It was like this everyday. When the group of young white boys each took turns spitting in her hair, she did as she did practically everyday; she recited frog genus’ in her head: Agalychnis, Atelopus, Bufo, Centrolenella, Dendrobates, Hyla. As she walked home, her hair laden with saliva, she’d always begin to feel better. Anything was better than the bus ride home. She was the only black girl in the third grade.

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I possess a moon carved from onyx. Smooth bands of tan intersperse glossy gradations approaching the purity of white, and I love to linger my fingers over its slickness. Each time, however, that I touch one of the moon's corners where it curves towards fullness, I'm startled anew by the sharpness.,

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Six months since I've seen you niece,
been struck, sun-numbed, stunned lovely,
blessed by an auburn tumble quaking
over your shoulders as you run,
chase your dog sunward, bolt
over stark house-shadow. Awesome Earth,

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Since the beginning of time, women have been the traditional custodians of birth. We have possessed all the innate knowledge, powerand wisdom necessary to bring our babies into this world... In the spaceof three short generations, birth has been stolen from women, sanitized of emotion and spirituality and repackaged as a medical procedure.

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