Unspoken Love during the Vietnam War

Written in 1975, and hidden away for 37 years. At that time there was no avenue for anything that referred to same sex love. It was written in a loose iambic pentameter, octave rhyme, as a form of cloaking the subject matter. The poem was created after the fact, over pot and booze, and was a catharsis. I created it for an English Literature project. The Professor, Dr. W. read it, gave it a brief moment of verbal disgusted review. I never even submitted it for the grade.

It is a story poem of disaster on a Navy ship, and the display of spiritual love of one man for another.

It is not sexually erotic. It was an awakening to me of an entire "hidden" society, I didn't know existed. The political implications were swept away, and the defiance was real.

It is being told by myself. It is not my story, I still tear up thinking about it. It is what I saw.

After reading this, I realize I keep calling "it" IT. For me, it has taken on a living existence, like a tumor that won't go away. I am old now, and have moved many times in my life. It has stayed with me through the years and I want people to finally know. - ZERO