A Gay Man's Kitchen Sink Drama

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

There are parts of the world, northern as well as southern hemispheres, where you can still feel, and all but smell hostility towards gay  people, especially gay men, exuding like a gas from the less enlightened among the heterosexual majority.

Ah, but where does that hostility come from, and how much does it owes its very existence to a repressed sexuality resulting from all kinds of socio-cultural-religious brainwashing?

Good question.

The beach in this poem just so happens to be in Cornwall; as well as being one of the most beautiful parts of the UK, it is also one of the least gay-friendly.

A GAY MAN’S KITCHEN SINK DRAMA

Washing peppers

at the kitchen sink, I began thinking

about a young man

in a bright red tee shirt stripping

down to cute blue swimming trunks

on a crowded beach

Heads half turned,

wary eyes chanced to glance his way

(behind sun glasses)

as he exposed a fine, hairy, chest,

let fly the cutest flip-flops, and loped

into the sea

Tall, lean, muscular,

he might have stepped out of a dream

among lonely gay men

haunted by a daunting sexuality,

loath to take on such a gay-unfriendly 

neighbourhood

He swam like a fish,

envious looks following every stroke

of a body sculpted

like a splendid Rodin bronze,

now gliding, now surfing feisty waves

roaring applause 

He stepped out of the sea

like a man stepping back into dreams

of lonely gay men

living lies among strangers

glad to pass themselves off as friends,

but on their terms

Slicing the peppers,

bold image of sex towelling itself down

before slipping back

into a bright red shirt, jeans,

and flip-flops suggesting an early night,

for the pair of us

Copyright R. N. Taber 2013