"♥♥♥ ♥♥♥" by Patrick Cash

Let's talk about ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ baby
Let's crow about its beauty daily
Place away your shades of shame
And trace in me a sacred flame
Lend me your lips, boy
And of your muscled hips
I will speak and enjoy
Give me the words
Of your body's supple burn
And into silver zodiacs
I will write the codes
My desire in you has cracked
Of ♥♥♥♥♥ bodies and buttocks
And ♥♥♥♥♥ and jockstraps
My tongue between your shoulderblades
Tattoos them with my name
That I will dare to speak

And dare to speak again
Down into the dip of your back
My mouth will murmur rapt
Then I let my whispers lick
First one gluteus muscle
Before on to its perfect brother
Hear my hands
On your flesh slap
And the parting of your pretty ♥♥♥
To reveal your winking, pink ♥♥♥♥
In the hush of my first kiss
The sensation's racing
Instantaneous
Spiralling up your spinal cord
Exploding into your loosened brain
Uttered as a gasp and a word
That was there from the beginning:

“♥♥♥♥”

And I say, “yes...”

I'm not talking about ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥
To shock or cause stress
I'm talking about it
Because no one else is
Our ♥♥♥ comedians
Are asexual chameleons
No ♥♥♥, please
We're ♥♥♥ and on TV

And I've heard my straight mates say:
“I don't mind it happening
As long as I don't hear about it”
Well here, now, it's happening
And it's hard and it's fast and it's racing
A gasp and a whimper
The sound of flesh whacking flesh
Of my ♥♥♥♥♥ inside him
It's sweat dripping from one man to another
A soaring, writhing ecstasy of kissing
It's in your face
It's in your head
It's in the space
Where angels fear to tread

Because my ♥♥♥ is part of my identity
My ♥♥♥ makes me and shapes me
And I’m not going to stop it and lock it
And shut it up
Not for you and not for me
My ♥♥♥ is laced with shame
My ♥♥♥ is the wrong ♥♥♥
My ♥♥♥ was illegal
My ♥♥♥ instils fear
It's parks after dark
And it's public toilets
And it's AIDS
Like David Stuart said:

“When your parents think of ♥♥♥
They see your sister married
You and your boyfriend
It's ♥♥♥♥ on ♥♥♥♥♥”
My ♥♥♥ is a sin without name
And try telling this
To the two 20-year-old boys
I interviewed last week
Who both have HIV
Because they're not told
About ♥♥♥ ♥♥♥ in schools
And they're not told
About transmission
And the condom, they are told,
Is there to stop pregnancy