Gender Issues
GENDER ISSUES
The suicide decided after all to cross the river.
Styx a stone’s throw away – Too many thrown stones.
Crossed over now into who knows what or where. Into
who knows beneath all that faith and charity after all?
Cruelly abandoned by us all; backed up into corners.
All those accusatory closed doors, shuttered windows.
Words not the sole way to show a soul’s distress though.
Tiny gestures, reactions, dress choice speak volumes;
sightlessness alive and well among the seeing.
The suicide decided to cross the river.
(Styx a stone’s throw away after all.)
Many too many thrown stones.
And words not the sole way
to show a soul’s distress.
Posted on July 30, 2017, in Poetry and tagged Bigotry, Fear, Gender, Ignorance, Pain, Prejudice, Suicide. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
Ben Naga 
All of your poetry is powerful, Ben, and this one especially. Not to mention well-crafted. And of course clever (“Styx” sounds like “sticks” in the same sentences with stones, etc.) And all in all, sadly true in today’s society where depression has become epidemic and so many affected are judged, ignored, cast aside – not to mention that the causes aren’t addressed…
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Thank you, Betty. The reference was of course to
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me.”
“‘Sticks and Stones’ is an English language children’s rhyme. The rhyme persuades the child victim of name-calling to ignore the taunt, to refrain from physical retaliation, and to remain calm and good-natured.” (Wikipedia)
But then this doesn’t always work; with the intended comfort changing into the bitterest of ironies.
Under the current regime in the US our LGBT sisters and brothers are facing ever-increasing bigotry, hostility, prejudice and injustice. Much of it is to do with people’s damagingly distorted view of “religion”, “God”, “Devil”, “good and evil”, “hell and heaven” and their ignorance and unfounded self-righteousness. Okay, rant over.
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Rant all you want – completely understood. It’s okay to “preach to the choir” once in awhile. The current mindset upsets me too and I’m right there with you on the soapbox.
We have the same saying here about sticks and stones (we were raised on that) which is why I picked up on your Styx and stones and thought it so clever. (The only difference in our saying is ours ends “words can never hurt me”. But of course that’s a lie. Words often hurt more than anything.)
Anyway… the LGBT hostility is unfathomable. It’s mostly people in the “Bible Belt” of the US who are the religious fanatics unable to think for themselves. They’ve been raised that way, are brainwashed. I’m on the west coast where this isn’t generally the case. People like Ellen DeGeneres have made great changes in the younger generations of both coasts but unfortunately it’s not enough. There’s now a backlash coming from the religious fanatics. Just when things seemed to be getting better…. it’s maddening, tragic, incomprehensible.
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Powerful indeed, I found this really moving Ben.
– Esme upon the Cloud
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Blessings. They need our understanding and support within this madhouse.
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And thank you. I enjoy fun but there are serious matters also and I am happy to be meeting you here too.
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A pleasure Ben, the darkness should be hauled out into the light often, and I applaud it all the more when it’s done well, for then it’s more useful. The fun is necessary to counter said darkness, or we’d all lose our marbles.
– Esme smiling upon the Cloud at him.
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Thank you. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. (And thanks for the sly compliment. 🙂 ) However I often feel we achieve little beyond a preaching to the angelic choir while the apostate demons – our counterpoint – are otherwise occupied. Still this is our ground and here upon it we stand: bellowing, howling, yelling, whispering or weeping as seems timely and appropriate.
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