This poem is not meant for young people

This poem is not meant for young people

It’s a poem about dreams and aspirations

Of course young people must dream big and aspire

To change the world and make it better

To fly, and as many a school motto does imply,

To aim high!

But this poem is not for young people

We’ve been fed the line: 

You can do anything you want to! You can be whoever you want to be!

But that’s not reality

There comes a point that, for one reason or another

Our long-cherished aspirations are

Simply not within our grasp.

Here’s the hard cold fact:

Life is not a level playing field

We’re not all the same

And it has nothing to do with how hard we work

Whether it’s intellect, looks, physical strength or money in the bank

Some people have more than their fair share while others miss out.

This poem is not a lament

Just because our lives don’t turn out 

as perfect as we might’ve once envisaged

Doesn’t, or shouldn’t mean that all’s lost.

It’s all about what we do with the cards that have been dealt to us

We all admire the people who rise up 

above difficulties in life and achieve a lot. 

You might not have been born with a silver spoon in your mouth

But have you made the best of what you’ve got?

 

Sylvain et Lola

 

They couldn’t be more different:

Sylvain in his sixties and Lola, her twenties

 

But each has known trauma.

 

The older trauma was the younger’s.

Just a child of ten,

Not sure what was happening when

Lola watched his mother go through a “violent depression”.

Could he lose her? – What would happen then?

 

His mum did come through that traumatic time for her, and for him.

 

Sylvain – the violence came much more literally and suddenly

And more recently (sadly homophobia is not dead).

 

Out of nowhere, he was set upon by thugs who threw him to the ground,

Hurled homophobic slurs at him while they kicked and hit his dancer legs with iron bars.

Not young, Sylvain feared for his life.

 

As the two shared their hardest times,

you could tell that the telling was to some degree a reliving

of those awful moments – and tears were not far away.

 

Yet the telling and the tears

both for themselves and for each other

were healing and strengthening.

 

As the two shared their hardest times,

Lola and Sylvain found a solidarity

And they agreed that tough as those experiences were,

They both emerged stronger.

 

Context

Watching Drag Race France – Season three – the sixth episode was a make-over challenge where the contesting queens were assigned an older LGBT person to makeover into a drag character to walk the runway with them. Lola Strega (drag name) was assigned to make-over Sylvain. The poem is about the conversation the two had while Lola did Sylvain’s make-up.

 

If they cancelled Christmas

 

Christmas means something to everyone

Not to say it’s all tinsel and fun,

Some might prefer if it was gone,

For them, not a happy season.

 

Christmas, ostensibly, a Christian holy day:

Jesus, as they like to say,

Is the reason

For the Season.

 

His birth, the Nativity, is what it’s all about

The narrative of what came about

Recounted, reenacted, year in and year out.

We love to tell the story (or is it stories?)

 

Of Mary and her fiancé, Joe and the little donkey, in tow.

Going down to crowded Bethlehem, the stable, the manger,

The angels, shepherds and three kings.

Who cares if it didn’t actually happen in quite the same way.

 

The songs we sing to tell the stories are widely known and sung.

Caroling in the high streets and on the market square,

Also in schools, churches and cathedrals, in fact anywhere.

There are famous carols in many a different tongue.

 

Then there are the meta-Christmas doings,

Cards and presents and Christmas trees,

Decorations and multicoloured LED’s

Turkeys, puddings, mulled wine and mince pies

Gingerbread houses, crackers! What’s the prize?

 

And who could forget Old Saint Nick?

We love pantos, and plays and a good Christmas flick.

Dicken’s Christmas Carol with Scrooge and Tiny Tim,

The Nutcracker Ballet and Midnight Express

 

I’m sure every reader could add things

Of which I’m not aware, or about which I forgot.

But what if for some reason all of it was gone

Christmas banned and prohibited – how’d we cope.

 

How would this change us if every vestige was eliminated?

I imagine and believe that people for whom the belief is real,

Though the paraphernalia might have been taken away,

But the core belief will remain unmoved.

 

My question I believe reaches beyond the merely hypothetical

Conjecture and speaks to our ability to empathise

With people in desperate straights, like people in war situations

Find things that mean a lot are taken away.

 

Sometimes it’s not prohibition but life’s realities

Mean Christmas cannot happen in the same way.

So as we celebrate this festivity, let’s spare a thought and perhaps a prayer

For people finding it tough at this time of year.

 

Hot and Cold

Lying in the hot tub, chilling 

Thinking about temperature:

A good looking person is really hot

But if they're nasty then they're cold as ice

An angry person has a hot temper

And if they're furious, they're fuming.

A popular person is really cool,

but a friendly person is warm hearted.

If you're angry with someone, you may give them the cold shoulder

But if you're in trouble or in charge at work, you're in the hot seat.

A sensitive topic is a hot potato 

But a hot button issue gets everyone talking and definitely arguing.

An addict who wants release may try going cold turkey. 

That is a brave thing to do but they might get cold feet.

Chilling in the hot tub, 

The hot streak of ideas has turned into a trail gone cold

I'd better get out and get dressed

Before I catch a cold! 

Same Struggle - Different Differences

Same Struggle — Different Differences 

It’s the same struggle – always. 

One group – very powerful. 

Another group – powerless. 

Pushed down, shut out 

Despised, disrespected. 

 

Whether with blatant violence or subtle discrimination,  

The ultimate aim is just the same.  

With deliberate downright deception  

to create unwarranted dread and hate 

To build up walls of separation,  

They’d prefer if you were ‘late’.  

 

But the Powerless don’t stay powerless 

You start to say ENOUGH 

You find your strength in UNITY 

As you begin to stand up. 

 

So, the struggle starts – 

The struggle requires resistance – the refusal to submit. 

The struggle requires courage – the willingness to commit. 

 

Oppressors demand your silence – to shut your mouth, to hide away. 

To comply with their instructions – to obey. 

But you say, “No way”. 

You’ll no longer abide their bigotry. 

You’ll no longer regard their authority 

You’ll stand up to their abuse... 

So, the struggle continues 

 

It’s the same struggle always – the differences are different.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discrimination against the differently abled is an ongoing fight... 

Treating humans like trash because we cannot talk or lost our sight. 

Looking down on us with their pity – not appreciating our worth. 

We have a place and role like everybody. 

We’re entitled to our dignity 

Whether our difference is physical, mental or sensory, 

 

Let us be the people we’re meant to be, 

Celebrate our victory.  

Stop making up policy 

“for us but without us” 

As if we have no mind of our own 

We demand the opportunity  

To make our opinions known.  

 

Rosa Parkes resisted – she’d take her rightful seat. 

Martin marched on Washington – he had a dream.  

Stonewall was the spark that started the conflagration 

For LGBTQ people against discrimination. 

Emmeline, with her sisters fought fiercely for the vote,  

With that Women’s Suffrage, the ‘glass ceiling has been smote.  

So the struggle continues... 

 

I can speak of many battlegrounds of hate, 

Of oppressions of ideology – of Apartheid 

Of Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, 

Huddleston and Tutu. 

Of Marsha B Johnson and Harvey Milk 

Peter Tatchell and Greta Thunberg 

To mention but a few 

 

The differences are different but the same struggle will continue. 

 

John Fairlamb 1/2022