critical showdown between teams battling for the final playoff spot.T

Modesty is a lie. -- Maya Angelou ?She is a girly girl born with a beautiful pelvisLiving in New Orleans, two feet, two breasts,Eight children, curvaceous and cute, she turnsHeads everyday, social works to pay the bills,Whispers to God. Shes in her 40s when GodWhispers back, that bewildering, 3rd generation,Stage 2, pummeling, Black woman news. Its$5000 a month to stay alive. She loses Ta-tas,Job, car, house. The long scar on her chest runsHorizontal with the horizon. She sews her eyesDown its back. A hot air balloon lifts her throughChemotherapy, beyond despair, arriving in Biloxi.Somewhere along the road to 50 she overhearsThat the pelvis is what makes us human.Her mother hands over black on black sneakersWith an ancestral silver toe and hip silver swoosh.Her grandmother loans her a pair of loudLime green, South African, Balega socks.?Hit the road daughter. The girly girl knowsShe doesnt need breasts to walk, or breastsTo be a girly girl, with both hands she raisesHer blouse over her head. The sun paintsHer chest the same shade of girl that it didForty years before when she was just 8 and justAn unknown girl on a beach, topless, with breastsStill sleeping in the bones curl just below herClavicle. When a Black woman decides toWalk topless for 1034 miles things get aligned.Ears line up over shoulders. Shoulders overHips. Hips over knees. Her spine is soonShot out of a cannon just like the 1850 InsomniacHarriet, her nipples calibrating due north andFreedom instead of sleep. When a Black womanMakes up her mind to walk topless for 1034 miles,A film crew can change their mind but a daughtersWitnessing eyes are irreversible. MadelinesEight-year-old breasts are still in the deep sleepOf girlhood when they leave, just like Retro girlyGirl back on the beach. She sets sail from BiloxiOn April 30. Her ghost nipples spin as dualCompass. Five miles an hour, eight hours a day,For sixty days. Topless in the sun and the drivingRain. The Republics electronic Book of Faces hearsThe news and goes neon. 10,000,000 eyes dial in.The first of twelve police cars stop her. She smilesAnd holds a class in indecent exposure along the sideOf the road. There are no Toni Morrison benchesTo hold them so they stand. Resolution: Its notIllegal for her shirt to be off if her nipples are only Ghosts, following overhead but not really there.On the police car radio NPR is interviewingJohn Napier, paleontologist. The topic is walking.As the policemen finish up their Selfie with theTopless woman, who can still turn a head, theyDo not hear the paleontologist say, HumanWalking is unique. The body, step by step, teetersOn the edge of catastrophe. The mother-daughterTeam is back on the road. The girly girl has 100Ligaments in each of her feet. Her transverse archIs the major weight-bearing bridge in her body.Her Achilles is her most critical tendon, running fromHer calf muscle to the back of her heel, helping herPush off with her toes and propel her body towardSenators and marble halls and the back of MadelinesStroller. With each step she takes a new beauty shopIs under new Construction. This one will not beDesigned & Assembled by the Chairman of the BoardOf Ta-tas. She moves one foot in front of the other.Highway 29, Highway 1, The Jeff Davis highway,The Warren Abernathy road, the Blue Star highway,The monument to the signer of the Declaration ofIndependence in Georgia, the Indian mounds ofNorth Carolina. The topless girly girl keeps an eyeOut for the June Jordan Expressway. The Audre LordeHighway. The Gilda Radner overpass. The 7th of 12Police cars pulls up alongside Madelines stroller. InEach new jurisdiction the men and women in blueWant to have a word with her, want to survey theTopography of her chest, want answers shes patientlyAlready given seven times before, want to make sureThere is no indecent exposure taking place on theJeff Davis Highway north. Another class on the sameTopic is held. Over and again the girly girl explainsThat wanting to live is legal in every state.For 60 days the sneering breathtaking rocky roadExhaust of 18 wheelers coats her mouth. ThroughDust tar and fumes she passes Used Car Lots,Daydreaming of driving the rest of the way in aCanary yellow Mustang, convertible. There areStrip Malls, Mexican restaurants, neon motel signsAdvertising 20 dollar-a-Night Rooms, and 19Holy ghost praise houses leaning in with tambourine.The handmaidens of 40, 290 women take turnsRubbing her legs down every night. Mother andMadeline munch on 5 pounds of peaches, 4 poundsOf plums, they talk about school and family and howDifferent the rain feels when you cannot run from it.The mother-daughter train stops to read historicalMarkers from Biloxi to Washington DC. The womanWho has been known to turn a head wants MadelineTo know how the world was made and how it canBe made differently. She does not drink enough water.Its April, Its May, Its June. The pavement meltsBeneath their feet. The asphalt doesnt care that sheDoesnt have breasts, doesnt care that Madeline is8, the blisters, callus feet, the inside of her palms growStones, are bloody. She keeps pushing Madelines tinySleeping breasts on up the road. Its a tar beach voyage.And Madeline will not be next. The ghosts of 40,290Dead women whisper that they have voted to take theirTops off too. Solidarity forever. Mother and daughterEat Little Debbie pies and suck on firecracker popsiclesUntil their lips are red, white, and blue. StrangersFollowing them on the Republics electronic Book of FacesPull up alongside for Selfies. They deposit small tubsOf watermelon, a box of KFC, a foil bag of Chick-fil-A,Another woman drops off a homemade plate made fromHer own dinner pots. The gravel on the road hitchhikesA ride inside their shoes. The pommeling rain turns theJeff Davis highway into a sliding mud pit of summerQuicksand. The girly girls breastplate, complete withHorizon scar, has been staring back at the sun and theRain for 45 uncommon days. What does the world seeWhen a Black woman accustomed to being a womanAnd turning heads takes off her top and walks 1034Miles across America up a highway named for thePresident of the Confederacy? A woman teeteringOn the edge of catastrophe? A girly girl with herMissing ghost nipples now turned tuning forks turnedToward freedom? She is a woman they cannot arrestFor not having what they believe she should haveIn order to be called a woman? The burning summerRain sizzles on the hot asphalt. The sun bakes theirTwo backs into a portrait of two thirsty MarigoldsClimbing. A truck door swings open by mistake hittingThe girly girl as it passes. Pitch and roll girly girl. GetUp. A woman who has refused her own catastropheIs walking across America with her daughter. PoliceCar no. 12 arrives. Madeline is asleep. Why dontThey talk to each other on their blue-way radios?Cant someone dispatch the update? A Black womanWalking topless across America is not illegal. The girlyGirls pelvis evolved 1.9 million years ago.This noble Soldered saddle of bones is what makes us stand upright.Helps us change direction, spin, swivel, adjust, reach,Reconfigure, when we find we need to march on andNot crumble. The long column of our human bodyRequires the marvel of the pelvis to conduct whenAll else fails. The missing Ta-tas are not what matter.The pelvis matters. The dead women of the ChorusOf Breast Cancer matter. God finding the girly girlOn the beach and whispering Go Topless in her earMatters. Her mind is 1034 miles away on the marbleSteps of Congress waiting for the rest of her to arrive.Dear Senator ______, you dont know me but my pelvis is 1.9 million years old and 60, 290 women with pelvises just like mine received a new breast cancer diagnosis in 2015 and 40, 290 died of the disease. I would like a minute of your time. I did not fly here. My testimony was not subpoenaed. I am not the kind of woman to bare all but I have walked topless to show what I will not hide.When her breasts were cut away she decidedTo travel light. She packed nothing of excess.Only essentials. Firecracker popsicles. Peaches.Intact Pelvis. Sweet Oil of Madeline. Three changesOf clothing. A cell phone. A Stroller. And herDaily Dear God. Her prayers fueled by the powerOf electrolytes and the salt and pepper kindnessStrangers. In the blazing summer sun the sweetGeorgia peaches go down easy in the warmthOf mother and daughter mouths. You can stillBe alive without your breasts. Im still beautiful.The girly girl proclaims. Certainly, no less a woman.The woman who can still turn a head is showingThe world what a womans body looks like whenWar has been declared. The look of more thanCatastrophe. How the curve of the human spineWill absorb the sad shock of news it did not wantTo hear. The magic of Bipedal locomotion + strongKnees when we stand it up then hold out our armsAnd say Walk. The breast-less body in full sail,Moving the wheels of the determined mind. Theorchestra of the pelvis singing from the HymnalOf Courage, page 24. What it means to be womanAnd opening a new beauty shop without permit,License, or permission. The birthday sunrise of theGirly girl arrives. Its June 30th. She pushes MadelinesStroller past Quantico, the Pentagon, the 14th StreetBridge. The steps of the Capitol see her. MadelineStands up. Senator, thank you for seeing me.Popsicle? Peach? What say you about a cure?Nikky Finney has written four books of poetry, including Head Off & Split, for which she won the 2011 National Book Award. She wrote this original piece for the 2016 espnW Women + Sports Summit. Custom Arizona Cardinals Jerseys . PETERSBURG, Fla. China Custom Jerseys Store . Carey Price didnt, but he still came out on top against one of his rivals for the No. 1 job at the Sochi Games. The Anahim Lake, B.C., native was stellar in making 39 saves in his home province and Lars Eller got credit for a bizarre short-handed winner as the Canadiens defeated the Canucks 4-1. http://www.jerseyscustom.us/ . Bjorn, who had a 36-hole total of 8-under 134, made a testing six-foot putt to save par on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th before bogeying the final hole after a misjudged approach shot. American Kevin Streelman was in second place after shooting a 69. Wholesale Custom Jerseys . 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NEW YORK -- Tina Charles had 23 points and 10 rebounds to help the New York Liberty beat the Connecticut Sun 89-82 on Friday night.While the Liberty (21-10) have already clinched the No. 3 seed in the playoffs, Connecticut (11-19) is in 10th place and will need a lot of help to make the playoffs.Courtney Williams scored a career-high 20 points and Chiney Ogwumike also had 20 to lead Connecticut.STORM 81, MYSTICS 76WASHINGTON -- Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird scored 17 points apiece and Seattle beat Washington in a critical showdown between teams battling for the final playoff spot.The Storm (14-17) won their third straight on the road to move into a tie for seventh place with Phoenix, a half-game in front of the Mystics (12-18) in the chase for the final playoff spot.Emma Messeman led Washington with 15 points.FEVER 95, SKY 88INDIANAPOLIS -- Briann January scored the last six points of the game from the foul line and finished with 20 points, leading Indiana past Chicago.ddddddddddddErica Wheeler added 16 points and Marissa Coleman and Lynetta Kizer 14 apiece to help the Fever (15-15) move into a tie for fourth with the Sky (15-15) and take the tiebreaker advantage.Chicago was without Elena Delle Donne, the league scoring leader who suffered a thumb injury in a game Wednesday night. Cappie Pondexter led the Sky with 22 points.WINGS 92, STARS 84SAN ANTONIO -- Odyssey Sims scored 20 points and Dallas beat San Antonio to end an 11-game losing streak and give coach Fred Williams his 100th victory.Skylar Diggins added 16 points for the Wings (10-21). Moriah Jefferson scored 27 points for San Antonio (6-24). ' ' '