Intro -- contents -- Introduction -- Acts of Power -- I. -- Childhood -- Zodiac: For Julie -- Howto Teach Them -- Froggy's Class -- The Bicycle Wizard -- Grandmother B s Clothes -- The Crazy Girl -- JimmyB s First Cigarette -- Dorothy -- Barbershop Ritual -- Mule -- February 19, 1994 -- II. -- Snow -- Outhouses -- Promise, in a Southern Town -- Miz Mattie -- Streetcorner Church -- Streetcorner Church II -- Matador -- Last Supper -- Words during War -- The Unintended Life -- The Widow -- The Factory -- Night Work -- Portraiture -- III. -- First Sight -- Looking -- Transits -- Seduction -- The Apprentice Dreams of Promotion -- Natural Occur ences -- Hunger -- The Stranger -- Taking a Train -- The Body -- Ash -- Still Life -- Offering -- Acknowledgments.