Love, Never Backward in Coming Forward

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

I will always be grateful to the guy (whose name I forget if I ever knew it for it was so long ago) who taught me the art of kissing.

Here in the UK, as in many western countries, heterosexual couples can kiss in public just about anywhere without being subjected to derogative comments or someone calling for their arrest. Not so, gay couples although it strikes me that it’s mostly gay men who bear the brunt of society’s discomfort regarding any public show of affection in this way.

[Photo taken from the Internet]

It is high time the less enlightened among the heterosexual majority got real and accepted that, like it or not, we gay people are here to stay.

As for leaders of those repressive regimes around the world (and their acolytes) where gay people live in fear of imprisonment or even death, why make complete fools of themselves in the eyes of the more enlightened when a demonstration of simple humanity could not only work wonders for world peace, but even make heroes of them instead?

Why shouldn't two gay men feel free to kiss and express love or affection or each other - yes, even in public - especially when they meet up or are saying goodbye? As for acting on impulse, I'm all for it. What's good for the heterosexual majority us good for the homosexual minority.  Any socio-cultural-religious intolerance of gay people can be summed up in two words - BAD ATTITUDE.

This poem is a villanelle.

LOVE, NEVER BACKWARD IN COMING FORWARD

Take me away from all this
prejudice and bigotry
with just one tender kiss

Well-meaning if thoughtless
people patronising me;
take me away from all this

Time to escape all this stress
if only briefly
with just one tender kiss

Politics but paying lip service
to our sexuality;
take me away from all this

Let religions ram its defences,
to our love, the victory
with just one tender kiss

Leaving those who despise us
to Earth Mother’s pity,
take me away from all this
with just one tender kiss

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008