FebulousFebruary 2025: Lost and Found

Bristol, 1967

History

When does it start?

Then, like always,

It was toilets.

I stood.

He stood.

I glanced down,

He did too.

Eyes meet; a grim, resigned, relieved smile.

Extend the moment. Wash hands.

Together, with a tsunami of silence,

We climb the steps (please don’t leave me);

Reach the top (SAY SOMETHING!);

“Want to walk?” (Thank you, God!)

With names we capture each other.

We speak of the weather, the church, the situation, the guilt.

Then a quiet explosive,

“I can’t help it. I know I’m homosexual”.

Like

‘Let there be light’

Like

‘I have a dream’

Like

‘No man is an island’

Verbal history is created.

Mine, now also visual, branded on my sleeve, without escape, and unremoveable.

History has begun.

Roger Newman, Margate