There Was No Pride In My Community

Every generation in every country
has it's dividing lines, it's splits,
it's dived-them-to-rule-them politics
and those who were organised and anti.....

The politics that engaged with me,
that got me by the gut and went to the brain,
were those of being anti nuclear weapons.

We were a hardy bunch, we had to be
There were so few of us and the forces
against us had better media and defences.

One of my bigger errors of my ways
was that half of me was in lock down
-I was gay, ashamed, and in the closet
and my companions barely half knew it
and know nothing of how to help me out.

Nonetheless I did all I could 
as an under-educated secretary,
in an organisation in which
nobody wanted to hold office.

Recently I saw the film Pride and I cried
as the film showed me the brio with which
protest and change should be done
if it is to engage and cause a chain reaction.

I later realised that the energy in that story
came from it starting in the capital of my country
where there were far greater resources
and a better sense of rights and choices
than I could ever imagine might exist
in my low energy/low engagement life
that strove against and failed to defeat,
with the life I had in North Lincolnshire.