Who gets to remember?
Who gets to forget?
Who gets to decide what
is or is not history?

What happens to us when
governments dictate what 
we can and can’t remember?

We who are old enough
bear the imprint of what
we learned before knowledge 
was forbidden, must speak.
The Middle Passage, the auction

of human souls. The Trail
of Tears, internment camps–
Japanese behind high wires.

No one will be taught about
any of these, or Stonewall,
or Me Too. We who came before
must teach those who came after. 

Long ago when the English forbade
the teaching of Celtic languages,
native ways, families formed
hedge schools, to keep knowledge
alive. So must we now.