Failed, by Schools of Thought found Wanting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Feedback suggest that most readers agree with me that education is the key to ridding the world of homophobic elements so I was happy to go along with the general consensus and include today’s poem in my new collection.

As my collections are general rather than specifically gay, it means that straight as well as gay readers get to read to my gay-interest poems; they can, of course, skip the gay material, but I am delighted to hear from a good many straight readers who appear to enjoy my poems on a gay theme as much as those about nature, society, whatever. [As regular readers of my blogs and books will know, I am up for writing on just about any subject under the sun.]

Whenever I post a poem in support of young gay people, I receive complaints accusing me of trying to corrupt them. Do they honestly believe none of us start wrestling with our sexuality until we are adults?

There are gay boys and girls around the world who badly need reassurance and support; schools could offer a lot more, religious institutions, too, instead of piling on the angst and making out they know best all the time.

FAILED, BY SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT FOUND WANTING

The first time we made love,

we were like young rabbits living in fear

of an owl swooping down

It was under a leafy awning,

in woods where we'd played as children

although never like this

As twilight cast a golden glow

across the scene, we caved in to feelings

we'd resisted for years

Oh, the bliss of physical love,

acting out its beautiful poetry, unspoken

till now but for its tears

Ah, but freedom was an illusion

if not the love consuming us that summer,

schooldays shut in a closet

Gossip raged. By the winter term,

we had gone separate ways, heads bowed,

twin hearts ripped out

To our shame, we let bigotry

get the better of us, an awakening sexuality

tempered by immaturity

Years on, mature adults now;

if a bigot's penchant for bullying still about,

more of us standing up to it

Copyright R. N. Taber 2012

[Note: First published under the title 'Where Tick-Box Curricula Found Wanting' in Tracking the Torchbearer by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2012.]