Straight as a Wall
My History book calls it The Gay Liberation Movement
An entire 4 sentences
Wedged between a paragraph on the Students for Democracy
And a fat page on Woodstock
My dad can tell you he was getting his masters
studying charts, configuring numbers
My mom was prom queen
painted nails, the captain of the drill team
But no one will tell you an entire culture
Marginalized and stretched
Who snapped and stood up
Refused to sit down
Started to walk
Started to run
My sister learned about Dr. King
She can home with a handout
And a one page writing assignment
No one told her about the people
clasping each others shaking wrists
sweaty palms
the men beaten
the women kicked
the people shushed
the bricks thrown
the fires set ablaze
so that I could love
so that I could walk
so that I could speak
no one asks
and no one tells
the story of the movement
the people brushed under the carpet
the stories brushed under the carpet
I will not be brushed under the carpet
into the closet
I refuse
I will ask
I will speak
And I will tell