Do Not Enter

Why not?

Is it really dangerous?

Am I the wrong gender?

The wrong color?

Love the wrong person?

Is it for staff only?

The sign may not

specifically say

DO NOT ENTER

but the assertion is there

in the “Whites Only”

or “Men Only” words.

I first saw a Whites Only sign

when my father was transferred

to Louisiana in 1965.

My all-white suburb in Massachusetts

had it through red lining.

I didn’t know it, couldn’t see it.

I heard Do Not Enter

when I applied to graduate

school in 1967

and was explicitly

told women just get married.

Do Not Enter.

I saw those words in 1970

as I moved to Washington

at the entrance to Innis Arden,

slightly painted over

but still visible,

Whites Only.

Persons who are homeless

find exclusionary signs often.

Bathrooms for customers only.

(Do Not Enter if you have no money.)

Do Not Sleep on this bench!

Do Not Stay in this park after dark.

Perhaps it is by implication only,

the whispers in the dormitory hall.

She’s lesbian or he’s gay, like it’s

somehow catching or dangerous.

Don’t Allow Them In Your World,

sending me into the closet for many years.

My grandmother insisted

there was no Irish in our family,

even though her grandparents

came from County Cork.

No Irish Wanted

in Boston in the 1920’s.

I wonder to whom

I quietly,

without words,

say Do Not Enter,

despite my pronouncement

All Are Welcome in My World.

© Marcia McLaughlin