For the month of April, I am participating in 30 days of #verselove poetry writing with Dr. Sarah J. Donovan's Ethical ELA.
Today's poetry inspiration is offered by Oklahoma State University preservice teachers Gavin, Noah, and Sarah, who encouraged us to silence our own voices in protest of LGBTQ+ discrimination and to write a poem that gives someone else a voice.
Dupont Circle 1984
we walked in silence
down the tight curving metal steps
into this hidden cellar of a bar
anonymous discreet invisible
pushed past
the heavy door
into pulsating music, beer and booze,
tight jeans, muscled bodies,
voices low, laughing, lingering
so many men, coupled, close, comfortable,
dark, intimate freedom
unexpectedly
he clutched my hand
yes - reached and grabbed
wove his fingers within every one of mine
locked together, needing reassurance
I squeezed back and held on
just moments before
we had sat coupled in the bright sun
at the cafe across the street
sipping beer for fortification
hatching the plan
my dear strong friend
he wanted to live out
he wanted to venture out
he wanted to meet out
he wanted whole
there was this gay bar downtown
please come with me, he said, just this once,
we’ll pretend we’re tourists
accidentally wandering in
would you please come with me?
he clutched my hand
we walked between the bar and tables
the length of the long narrow room, then turned
and walked back through guys, guys, guys
back through the heavy door
into the bright sunshine
where he gasped
he hadn’t anticipated the fear,
the rush, the sheer giddy madness of being
welcomed as is
He went back by himself that Friday.
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