A Timely Rescue

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

One New Year’s Eve many years ago, a friend and fellow reveller asked me if I am gay. When I answered, yes, he went on to ask why I had never mentioned it, was I ashamed…?

The truth is that, at the time, I was ashamed, having been raised to believe gay relationships were perverted.  I had discussed being gay with very few people in those dark days.

As a direct result of that long-ago conversation, I resolved to come out to the world, the only New Year resolution I have ever kept, and never regretted.

It remains one of the greater tragedies of the modern world that, yes, even in the 21^st century, many gay people worldwide live in so gay-unfriendly an environment that they remain afraid to be openly gay. We can but hope for better times and less socio-cultural-religious bigotry dating back centuries. Meanwhile, no one should ever be ashamed of their sexuality, while  those that would have us be so would do well to take a long look at their own shortcomings and get real.

This poem is a villanelle.

 A TIMELY RESCUE

Before I acknowledged my sexuality

and came out to everyone,

I was scared, frustrated and lonely

Scared of losing my friends and family,

I could but conceal my confusion

before I acknowledged my sexuality

Made to think I belonged to a fraternity

of some perverted  persuasion,

I was scared, frustrated and lonely

Dreaded succumbing to plain honesty,

heavy my footsteps, every one,

before I acknowledged my sexuality

Slow to grasp at straws in an angry sea

of heterosexual convention,

I was scared, frustrated and lonely

Rescued, came to understand eventually

that I am but human;

before I acknowledged my sexuality,

I was scared, frustrated and lonely

Copyright R, N. Taber 2009; 2014