a response to http://www.darkpoetry.com/dp/16077/111542
(both the comments on the work, and the reflection of "macho" within the work itself as somehow being more valid as another type of masculinity)


so imagine you're in a city and you want to go to a club where people know what the YMCA song is REALLY all about except everyone around you is heterosexual white and catholic and there's only one place really for you to go to and it's so deeply underground you have to ring a doorbell and get ushered in in order to reassure the few patrons that they won't be beaten up outed or killed.

so imagine you're a man who looked a little too longingly at another man and now you have to gather up the sticks they'll use to burn you with because you're now a heretic, and if they don't gather enough they'll toss you on the fire as kindling for the women who dared to own property or to speak up for themselves.

so imagine you have to live a life of silence and of fear or your life will become a media circus and people will throw rocks or feces at you in the street and your wife will end up harassed and ridiculed everywhere she goes and you'll be unable to rent an apartment or get a job because your employers will assume you have AIDS.


*******************

fling that word around
faggotry
like you know what it means

stride around in those boots
called self-righteousness
feels good to be king, huh
in a world where men are men
and men conform
or die

yeah
cause I bet you've never been different
never been spat on
or shoved
never been afraid for your life
or the life of those close to you
never been jailed
for who you wanna be with
in 5 years




watch out, folks
this may come as a shock
and I don't recommend this next bit
for pregnant women
or people prone to heart attack-

gay men are like other men.

yup.

they wear leather
and tee shirts
and converse sneakers
just as often
possibly more
than tight pants
and belts that shimmer
when they shimmy

do you all really feel so insecure
that if someone insults your clothes
you feel the need to insult him back?
do you really care that much?
how do you wrap your masculinity
paper or plastic?




and if you've ever thought about
safer sex
or sexual freedom
or playing with handcuffs
you've got something to thank those faggots for

the decency to not make a pass at you because you're straight?
do you even realize how that sounds?
because obviously if a man flirted with you
you'd have to recoil, react
because being attracted is somehow indecent

again, shock number two
there's a difference between flirtation
and sexual harassment
which seems to be a fine line
for some.



it infuriates me how anyone would presume
what a woman should find attractive.
how dare you suggest there's something wrong with me
if I like a man with eyeliner
and the ability to match his clothes.
who are you to judge?



I am in a city where the manly man reigns supreme
and women are sent to the kitchen to cook
and gay men are sent to the park under cover of night
because they have no safe places to be
and lesbians don't even exist.

and I am afraid.

because it's not uncommon to get beaten
or even killed
for maintaining eye contact with the wrong person
of the wrong gender at the wrong time.
I have to live in secret
underground
with the gassed bodies of homosexuals
who slumber fitfully
beside the jews and the gypsies.

maybe it seems like a long time ago to you.
but it's in the dust I choke on every day.


and yet
they've never had a revolution here.

what makes me sick
is that you speak
from a place where we fought
hard
for the right to go to a bar
without being arrested-
for the right to wear what we wanted

for the right to live and breathe next to you.

you think sucking cock sounds bad?
wait til you choke on your own ignorance.