Thursday 7 August 2014

Prelude to a Coming of Age


This poem takes me back to when I was about 13 or 14 years-old, and it struck me for the first time that I was (far) more attracted to boys than girls.

Those adults, especially parents, inclined to assume that children and young people don’t know their own minds regarding sexuality (and much else besides) need to think again, and think through what it means for a young person to acknowledge he or she is gay.  

As for parent-child relationships, gay or straight, is it not, after all, no more or less than a question of love?

PRELUDE TO A COMING OF AGE

Saw a boy and girl kissing
under a blossoming cherry tree,
and wished it were me

I longed for such an embrace,
to hear words of love in my ear,
and wiped away a tear

Oh, for those lips on mine,
fuelling this frantic desire in me
to be yours, to be free…

They made a fine couple,
pink confetti blowing in a breeze
driving them to their knees

I could only turn away,
but imagine a lovemaking divine
and wish it were mine

Saw a boy and girl kissing
under the blossoming cherry tree
and wished she were me

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010

[Note: This poem first appeared under the title 'Acknowledging Sexuality' in On the Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010.]








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