You Inspire Me: Pat Parker

Pat Parker is my all time favorite poet. She was upfront and honest about who she was in everything she wrote - black, feminist, lesbian, and unshamedly so. All LGBT persons of color should possess at least one book by her. Her poem below is my favorite.

For staights folks that don't mind gays . . .
You know, some people got a lot of nerve. Sometimes I don’t believe the things I see and hear.

Have you met the woman who’s shocked by two women kissing and in the same breath, tells you she's pregnant? BUT gays, shouldn’t be blatant.

Or the straight couple who sit next to you in a movie and you can’t hear the dialogue because of the sound effects. BUT gays shouldn’t be blatant.

And the woman in your office, spends your whole lunch hour talking about her new bikini drawers and how much her husband likes them. BUT gays shouldn’t be blatant.

Or the “hip” chick in your class rattling a mile a minute while you’re trying to get stoned in the john, about the camping trip she took with her musician boyfriend. BUT gays shouldn’t be blatant.

You go in a public bathroom and all over the walls there’s: “John loves Mary”, “Janice digs Richard”, “Pepe loves Delores”, etc., etc. BUT gays shouldn’t be blatant.

Or your go to the amusement park and there’s the ‘tunnel of love’and pictures of straights painted on the front; and grinning couples coming in and out. BUT gays shouldn’t be blatant.

Fact is, blatant heterosexuals are all over the place.Supermarkets, movies, on your job, in church, in books, on television - every dayand night, every place -- even, gay bars!And they want gay men and woman to go and hide in the closets.

So to you straight folks I say, “Sure! I’ll go - if you go too!” “BUT I’m polite so, after you.”