The Token Dutch Girl

you know some people
got a lot of nerve
sometimes, i don’t believe
the things i see and hear.

Have you met the woman
who’s shocked by 2 women kissing
& in the same breath
tells you that she’s pregnant?
BUT GAYS SHOULDN’T BE BLATANT.

Or this straight couple
sits next to you in a movie
& you can’t hear the dialogue
Cause of the sound effects.
BUT GAYS SHOULDN’T BE BLATANT.

And the woman in your office
Spends your entire lunch hour
talking about her new bikini drawers
& how much her husband likes them
BUT GAYS SHOULDN’T BE BLATANT.

Or the “hip” chick in your class,
rattling a mile a minute—
while you’re trying to get stoned
in the john
about the camping trip she took
with her musical boyfriend.
BUT GAYS SHOULDN’T BE BLATANT.

You go in a public bathroom
And all over the walls
there’s John loves Mary,
Janice digs Richard,
Pepe loves Delores, etc. etc.
BUT GAYS SHOULDN’T BE BLATANT.

Or you go to an amusement park
& there’s a tunnel of love
& pictures of straights
painted on the front
& grinning couples
coming in and out.
BUT GAYS SHOULDN’T BE BLATANT.

Fact is, blatant heterosexuals
are all over the place.
Supermarkets, movies, on your job,
in church, in books, on television
every day and night, every place—
even in gay bars.
& they want gay men & women
to go hide in the closets—

So to you straight folks
i say—Sure, i’ll go
if you go too,
but i’m polite—
so—after you.

— pat parker, for the straight folks who don’t mind gays but wish they weren’t so BLATANT. (via black-poetry)