White Papers [1]

White Papers [1]

BY MARTHA COLLINS

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