"Clothes" Disclaimer

When the poem, ”Clothes,” was forward to me by email, reading only the first stanza, I knew that it was not written in Dr. Angelou’s “distinct voice.” So I did a little investigating. I pulled this “disclaimer” off of her official website…at http://www.mayaangelou.com/Contact.html

"Please be aware that Dr. Maya Angelou has absolutely no affiliation with the "poems" entitled Clothes or I Am A Christian that are circulating the Internet."

Probably because I am a writer, I am sensitive about attributing something to a writer that the writer did not write. Especially, Maya Angelou…she’s one of our she-roes. I know that we get excited when we read something that touches us. We want to share it with everyone we know; but I am learning that perhaps we should do a little investigating BEFORE we click “forward.”

As a teenager, I remember being groomed in how to clean the family refrigerator. I’d find something way back up in the corner the bottom shelf. I opened the wax paper. The sausage patty looked like it was “probably” good. It smelled fine. Or did it? I’d smell it again. And then my mother, with the wisdom of generations of mothers before her shouted from behind me, “When in doubt, throw it out.” I’ve brought that adage with me into adulthood. And it works for more than refrigerator cleaning.

(c) 2004, Stanice Anderson