@ 27.055 MHz: Ad Astra; Szymanowski In Taormina; A Poem For Kai

Short hair, shoes and shirts are required in the

local village, along with all sorts of normative demands,

mandated by years---centuries---of custom and tradition:

confinements of societal expectation,

founded on silly and prejudiced inhibition,

intended to place a stifling and fatal suppression

upon that kind of Love's exquisitely tender expression,

adorned with all sorts of intimate joys---

such intimate relationships between adolescent boys.


Long-haired, shoeless and shirtless, they come

(here, and with each other) to this secluded shore.

Their beauty is more than the total sum

(if such could ever be known) of the stars

gathered in summary constellation.

Beneath their baggy trousers' cuffs, their bared footsteps cluster

upon the eagerly receptive, tide-dampened sands.

No shame the village can muster

obtains here; neither abuses nor mars

even the least of the boys' blisses,

exchanged with candor and no deceit:

taste and warmth of wet kisses,

clasping of agile, and wandering, hands

with the adjacency of their bared feet.

You know that Music and Poetry

can only provide the metaphor

(perhaps, also, a simile)

that conveys this delectation,

which you will preserve in your agile memory,

after long and intricate observation,

remembered, like their beauty without flaw,

tonight, next week, and the inevitable return to Warsaw.


Moments of such delicate pleasure were praised in Alexandria.


Starward

Author's Notes/Comments: 

Karol Szymanowski (1881-1937), Polish composer, visited Taormina in Sicily, found confirmation---during his observation of some adolescent boys' enjoying each other's company on the seashore---of his own nature, and of the joys that were innate to and inherent in his being. 


The last line alludes to the Poetry of Constantine Cavafy, and to the Poets in Alexandria, Egypt, during the Ptolemaic dynasty.

 


Kai:  this poem is for you.  You may take it for whatever you wish it to be---confirmation that you are not alone; a reminder that your nature is yours, and deserves neither shame nor suppression, but joy, expression, and celebration.  Love is Love.

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