Poetry from the past

/ Sassybear

I wrote this in college. I think I got what I wanted…

All I want

Cartoons on Saturdays in pajamas

Brie on a blanket listening to symphonies in tuxedoes

Going out dancing, dancing at home

Running up down escalators and washing dogs

Playing Frisbee in the park

Getting frisky in the dark

Sex as an option, not a requirement

Crying at sad movies

Visiting old friends and making new ones

Playing tennis, going sledding

Painting landscapes, reading comic books

Growing flowers, living life one day at a time

Working hard, playing fair, telling jokes

Laughing until it hurts and crying until it doesn’t

Talking and listening

Wearing plastic rings and paper hats

Being a partner, friend, confidante, and lover

Feeling acceptance and having expectations

Needing space, not distance

Being interesting, not impressive

Honesty, not perfection

Picking dandelions on warm summer days

Running through fields of tall grass

Sitting in silence

Hearing the rustling leaves and singing birds

Watching leaves fall, trying on sweaters

Staying outside until it’s too cold

Coming inside for cocoa

Cuddling under warm blankets

Making breakfast, playing records

Singing in and out of tune

Shopping for bargains, for presents, for fun

Making bread

Playing scrabble, coloring

Calling you right after you leave to say I miss you

Having the chance to miss you

Watching movies, discussing them

Over coffee and cookies

Going to museums, concerts, and airports

Taking pictures, making albums and scrapbooks

Trading massages

Kissing and hugging

Talking about dreams, sharing disappointments

Watching snow fall, making snow angels

Taking hot baths

Champagne and shrimp tonight

Beer and burgers tomorrow

Support for what I try

Not criticism for what I don’t

Baking pies, building shelves, sewing curtains

Teaching me, learning you

9 thoughts on “Poetry from the past”

  2. I’d guess that despite all the years in-between the list today would hardly have changed at all [maybe the playing tennis, but could still be there] – though you’ve acknowledged this in your added comment above. Few of us could say the same. Well done – and most interesting to read.

    I made out a list of aspirations when I was about 20, though not in poem form. One item I do recall was to get married [to a girl – as yet unidentified] in a particular cathedral with the most lavish ceremony imaginable. I blush to recollect such. .

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    • While I never fancied myself a poet, I wrote a handful of poems, mostly about men I loved/lost/lusted after or being gay in a hostile world. It was interesting to rediscover and read through them. Yes, this list was a sort of manifesto of might-bes fir my life. And it was a fairly accurate forecast for what I’d do. And feel no bluster at your aspirations. Many of us were force fed the lie that are only path to happiness was with a woman.

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      • You were emotionally and precociously mature enough to acknowledge your true self at an earlier age than a lot of us, though of course this led to problems which for us closeted folk weren’t to manifest until years later – like as when I came out in my late 20s, me hopelessly trying to stress that I really WAS hetero in all those wasted years before then. Couldn’t have been much ‘fun’ for you to lay yourself open to the then hostile world [still there, I know] around you at such a delicate stage in your own development.

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