Not Yet Poem by Jackie Chou

I lied
in an old poem I wrote
when I was twenty-one
that I was OK
that my mother
who had just passed
had turned into a stone goddess
so she could no longer suffer
that attending an elite college
was all about the proper ways
to wear my clothes
the syllables on my tongue
that the day I walked up the stage
to get my diploma
was my happy ending

Looking back
I realize that was just the beginning
a small snippet of my life
captured on paper photographs
I had long tucked away
Had I learned everything I needed to know
about the planet under my feet?
The best answer I can give to that is
Not yet

Not yet had I learned
the world was not there
to roll out a red welcome mat to me
that I must work to earn a place in it
and that co-existing with others
involved more than knowing
how to pronounce French cuisines
which matters not to me now
twenty-five years after
I wrote that poem