Breath, Eyes, Memory

by Edwidge Danticat

“I am being irresponsible,” he said. “Your mother will have me arrested. Thank God you are over eighteen.”

Girl run you are in danger

“Secrets remain secret only if we keep our silence,”

“They train you to find a husband,” she said. “They poke at your panties in the middle of the night, to see if you are still whole. They listen when you pee, to find out if you’re peeing too loud. If you pee loud, it means you’ve got big spaces between your legs. They make you burn your fingers learning to cook. Then still you have nothing.”

you don’t marry someone to escape something that’s inside your head.

I come from a place where breath, eyes, and memory are one, a place from which you carry your past like the hair on your head.