Because my father said Yes
but not in our lifetimes Because
my mother said I know my daughter
would never want to marry...

But mostly because they rarely spoke
of or noticed or even whispered
about and did not of course ...

Because magazines rarely TV
rarely textbooks rarely or not
at all except for figures like
George Washington Carver
who'd lived in our state

Because among the crayons
there was one called Flesh

Because paintings rarely or never
until because books from the library
never until because college literature
not at all the American lit anthology
had only Gwendolyn Brooks
who was not assigned

Because a few years after Brown
v. Board of Education I wrote a paper
that took the position Yes but not yet

although my father although
my mother although we rarely
although we whispered

although the silence although
the absence although even now
some TV books not to mention

radio websites new militias hate
groups raging against our socialist-
communist-fascist although but still:

our textbooks now our museums
mostly our college literature
courses even our crayons not

to mention our young president
who could scarcely have been
imagined when we when I—

and although I've gone back
and filled in some blanks
I'm still learning this un-

learning untying
the knot of Yes but re-
writing this Yes Yes