Walt Whitman: A Glimpse
A glimpse through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove
late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,
Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching
and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,
A long while amid the noises of coming and going,
of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little,
perhaps not a word.
Judy Grahn: A History of Lesbianism
How they came into the world,
the women-loving-women
came in three by three
and four by four
the women-loving-women
came in ten by ten
and ten by ten again
until there were none that you could count
they took care of each other
the best they knew how
and of each other’s children,
if they had any.
How they lived n the world,
the women-loving-women
learned as much as they were allowed
and walked and wore their clothes
they way they liked
whenever the could. They did whatever
they knew to be happy or free
and worked and worked and worked.
The women-loving-women
in America were called dykes
and some liked it
and some did not.
they made love to each other
the best they knew how
and for the best reasons
How they went out of the world,
the women-loving-women
went out one by one
having withstood greater and lesser
trials, and much hatred
from other people, they went out
one by one, each having tried
in her own way to overthrow
the rule of men over women,
they tried it one by one
and hundred by hundred,
until each came in her own way
to the end of her life
and died:
The subject of lesbianism
is very ordinary; it’s the question
of male domination that makes everybody
angry.
Source: The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse, edited by Stephen Coote.
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