To the Tune of Yes

Karen An-hwei Lee

From years without to years ahead —

We spent so much time

waiting for the universe to say yes

when it already said yes

with a left-handed concerto

for a pianist with the last name of Wittgenstein

who lost his arm in the first world war,

with adverbs in the lights

over a tear-gas field, of mottled sycamore —

of minor firefly prophets.

If only we could read this axiom of yes —

if we survived locust-years without, then

let us survive the years ahead.