Radclyffe, Y’all

As I grow older

I know fewer and fewer

Happy, carefree gay people

I don’t really know any

Off the top of my head

Besides the bisexuals who live

Passing lives in every other way—

I especially see

A well of loneliness

Amongst gay men of all ages

Some say it’s because of

Circumstance, some say

It’s Peter Pan syndrome

I say it’s

Almost certainly

The same phenomenon everyone else has—

Unhappy people live unhappy lonely lives

Doesn’t matter what your various

Orientations are, just matters

What you do with the one life you live

—

Are you going to spend it

Hating yourself, hating your body

Competing with everyone for everything paltry

Or are you going to spend it

Trying to be happy, despite the odds

That you might be made fun of

For who you are

Personally

I’d rather be mocked belittled attacked and forgotten

Than waste another moment hating myself

For who I naturally am

Perhaps this well of loneliness is

Man made, and perhaps

You can throw yourself a rope

And get your stupid ass out of the well

Or perhaps

Even worse

Society throws us into the well

Well, against our will

Either way

Fucking rapunzel that shit

Or at least, for the love of god—

Ask for some help