A Conspiracy of Faith OR Gay in Iran

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

While our hearts go out to the victims and survivors of the recent earthquake in Iran, let’s not lose sight of the fact that it is a very repressive regime. Gay people have been executed in Iran for their sexuality alone. There is still a long way to go before we are accepted for ourselves worldwide and everyone recognizes we have as valuable a contribution to make to society as anyone among the heterosexual majority.

I wrote today’s poem after a conversation with two Iranian students in a gay bar here in London. 

Tehran: Photo from the Internet

This poem is a villanelle.

A CONSPIRACY OF FAITH or GAY IN IRAN

We suffer so, my love and me,
never free from persecution
for our ‘sin’ of homosexuality

We flung a bottle in a friendly sea
taking news of revolution...
We suffer so, my love and me!

Prey to a subterranean bigotry
killing us with religion
for our ‘sin’ of homosexuality

Tortured exiles in a home country
blind to natural evolution...
We suffer so, my love and me!

Openly engaging with society,
an impossible proposition
for our ‘sin’ of homosexuality

Condemned by an ancient judiciary
(a bond slave to tradition);
We suffer so, my love and me, 
for our ‘sin’ of homosexuality
  
London, August 2012

Copyright R N. Taber 2012