Who says an older woman shouldn't dance? / Gloria Wade-Gayles -- Age / Nikki Giovanni -- The affirmation / Patricia Raybon -- Journal (February 12, 1987) / Alice Walker -- Unlocking midlife / Jackie Warren-Moore -- Games / Jackie Warren-Moore -- What I learned on the way to getting old : don't tell your age and other lessons / Elyse Singleton -- Midlife blues / Carmen Turner -- How to fly into fifty (without a fear of flying) / S. Pearl Sharp -- The ball of a lifetime / Trudier Harris-Lopez -- In search of meaningful work / Jan Thomas -- Dreaming of crones / Carleen Brice -- New bones / Lucille Clifton -- Choosing longevity / Susan L. Taylor -- Maneuvering through menopause : a rite of passage / Marilyn Hughes Gaston and Gayle K. Porter. -- To my last period / Lucille Clifton -- Hair matters at midlife / Brenda J. Allen -- Am I ugly? / Terri Sutton -- Banyan trunk / Ada Nelribi -- From I left my back door open / April Sinclair -- Used / Rita Dove -- My cups used to runneth over / Diane Donaldson -- Middle-age UFO / Colleen McElroy -- From a day late and a dollar short / Terry McMillan -- Homegirl reunion / Joan Hopewell-Hartgens -- Letting go with love / Miriam Decosta-Willis -- From the women of Brewster Place / Gloria Naylor -- Babies??!! / Tina McElroy Ansa -- Adoption : a midlife love story / Sheila Stainback -- The pathway home / Stephanie Rose Bird -- The dance of life / Wuanda M. T. Walls -- Full circling / Elaine Lee -- In the heat of shadow / Jewelle Gomez -- Parents, wives, and womanhood : the lessons we never learned / Ta'shia Asanti Karade -- Age and sexuality / Maya Angelou -- Trust me / Pearl Cleage -- Gray pussy hair / Opal Palmer Adisa -- Safer sex (before and) after fifty / Gale Madyun -- Plum jelly in hot shiny jars / Akasha Gloria Hull -- It might as well be spring / Carleen Brice -- The company she keeps / Colleen McElroy -- From do-it-yourself rainbows / J. California Cooper.