Ah, Gay Paree! Image from first Gay Marriage Show in Paris, 2013. Photo by Francois Guillot / AFP.
Texas Gay Marriage: Soon Come?
Candidates claiming to support the Constitution
need to get hip: Love’s sweet institution
will soon be respected in fair distribution.
Today’s headlines say gays may marry here;
this makes me feel glad, if not fully queer!
I congratulate warmly dear friends lez and gay;
I’m delighted for you on this wonderful day.
But as marriage comes to you, tread carefully, please:
like any rosegarden, it’s buzzing with bees!
Now, I liked being married; I did not look for strife.
I liked breakfast in bed and a well-ordered life –
but it might have been nicer if I’d had a wife!
I spent time today asking, down on my knees,
if any woman I know might please marry me!
They looked at me oddly. “You know you’re not gay.”
“So what?” I asked, “is there a test? Is it too late to change my
ways?”
A wife might choose my clothes, and try to keep me healthy.
(Needless to say I’ll need one who is moderately wealthy!)
I’m sure I’d like a wife to daily plan my lunch,
to do the shopping and the wash and even, in a crunch,
figure out the taxes, Hon, and save us both a bunch!
The raving right-wing haters fear that men may wed with goats.
I’d say, “Godspeed!” and wish them well – til Nanny feels her oats!
Just leave the ladies out of it, unless one wants a kid,
then may she have more range of choice than poor sweet Nanny did!
Friends, keep your love bright! Do not let it get stale,
lest the freedom you seek become the next jail.
You may have an advantage in starting out equals.
Now, write your own stories; we don’t need more sequels
to the war of the sexes that’s left us all battered –
whatever makes you feel loved is what matters.
It’s a date to remember, let’s all give a cheer –
and start planning those weddings in Texas, next year!
Mariann Garner-Wizard
February 27, 2014
Austin, Texas
Read more poetry and articles by Mariann G. Wizard on The Rag Blog.
[Mariann G. Wizard, a Sixties radical activist and contributor to The Rag, Austin’s underground newspaper from the 60s and 70s, is a poet, a professional science writer specializing in natural health therapies, and a regular contributor to The Rag Blog. ]
Thanks, Marian. One day gender will cease to be an issue that can be used to deflect our attentions away from the harm that’s being done to our world by those who can. In the meantime, there should only be one rule: anyone who finds someone else who loves and respects them gets to have that relationship with that person. PS: Thanks for the proposal Marian, I’m oddly flattered but it’s still no.