Being
Jerry Landry
05.07.2003

(for Guy A)

I don't want you to get the impression that
being gay is just trying to find a place to get it on
(though some would say that's it).
Being gay is being you.
It's a part of you that's not going away
ever
and part of the experience
(like the common human experience)
is coming to terms with that
and every other part
of you.
Being gay is being out
of society yet strangly
at the center of it all.
Looking in with one eye
and looking around from the inside
with the other.
Being gay is being clear
in what you want for some
and being vague in what you want
for just as many others.
'I want a man, I think
or do I just want an experience?'
Being gay is being part
of a greater world, a greater history
that stretches further than when
the first Olympians were doing each other
on the plains of Greece.
We have been here
(though Santorum would disagree).
Being gay is learning to be
while ignoring a world that tells you
that you're wrong
that you're evil
that you're different
while all the while the world
is hiding from themselves.
So be gay! Be fruitful!
Sew your wild oats
but always remember
being gay is being you,
not someone else.
We have enough problems besides
creating more for ourselves.

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