Sunday, 28 September 2014

Haunted, Wherever Love Loses Out to (so-called) Convention


Years ago, many gay men and women would get married or even enter a religious order rather than confront their sexuality head-on and learn to live with and enjoy it. For a start, for those to whom  it is an important part of mind-body-spirit, religion should be a path to fulfilment, not a means of escape. While it isn't only gay people who find themselves having to sacrifice the love of their lives to various socio-cultural-religious expectations, if not dogma, this is primarily a gay-interest blog so...

It is one of our greater modern tragedies that so many gay people worldwide are still growing up in a gay-unfriendly environment and seeking escape rather than fulfilment; it is likely to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

HAUNTED, WHEREVER LOVE LOSES OUT TO (SO-CALLED) CONVENTION

When I was a young man,
I tried out dating girls because that’s what young men
are expected to do

I couldn’t understand
why I felt so attracted to another man as I’d been told
it was a sin

I tried to stop these feelings
overwhelming me, but couldn’t get you out of my mind
no matter how I tried

You haunted me
day and night, couldn’t concentrate for long on anything
but you

I so needed to know
more about your body, mind, and spirit than making love
in wet dreams

I’d hold you close,
kiss your smiling mouth, entwine with your naked body,
let it into mine

I can but remember
that starry night we had when you said you loved me too,
but being gay was not for you

At your wedding
the radiance of your smile spread like summer, won over
everyone but me

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010


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