Full text of the Complete Volume of Collected Borg Poetry: "Poetry is irrelevant."
As a few of you may know, a troll recently called the pseudo-autobiographical story of my very first interracial encounter:
"Sappy."
He/She/It also informed me that
"I was gay."
Now I have to admit to you that this bothered me. I'd been losing sleep for days over how to present this particular revelation to my husband, since Perry's always considered himself one of the legendary poster boys for straight hetero sex. Even though we made love twice during the time period in which I wanted to tell him about my predicament, I couldn't find the right way to broach such an important subject.
Finally I sketched out my plan for telling Perry about my dilemma. What follows is a fairly accurate description of the results:
First, after stripping down entirely, I hid in the bedroom closet for fifteen minutes counting on my unknowing hubby to come into the bedroom looking for me so that I might burst out of the closet. I figured an in your face confrontation was best. Besides I knew I could get his attention just by making sure that my breasts took the lead in an
in-your-face
attack. After the first fifteen minutes were up, I decided to wait for another fifteen minutes. Three minutes had gone by when I screamed out at the top of my lungs that he'd better come back to the bedroom and see me--right now.
Now Perry is nothing if not headstrong. He didn't budge.
My children came in instead. Naturally they asked me why I was hiding in the closet, and, being the helpful little girl scout she is, my youngest, Trini, opened the door to let me out. So there I stood in the midst of all our hanging shirts, skirts and dresses totally nude. Before my bug-eyed progeny could ask any me more questions, I told them in no uncertain terms that I wanted to see their father, and then they were to work on their homework for at least three and a half hours or until next Tuesday whichever came first.
My little girl quoted me quite succinctly when she said: "Daddy! Mommy's hiding in your closet naked, and she said to tell you that you'd better get your ass in there if you know what's good for you."
So much for romantic trappings wrapped in an element of surprise.
I didn't realize that a man could stare for so long at a naked woman standing in a clothes closet and not say a single word. He tried to keep his face composed to hide any feelings he might have, but I could see deep inside his dark brown eyes that he was laughing at me way, way back inside of his primal, macho psyche.
Grimacing slightly, I started to tell Perry
Nevermind,
but before I could get the word out, he spoke. "Can I ask what this's all about?"
"I'm coming out of the closet."
"I see that. Apparently so did everyone else in the house. It's a good thing that Ben's friend, Trammell, left already." He paused. "Well? Are you going to tell me why you're standing naked in our bedroom closet?"
I took, a deep breath and told him the truth. "A troll told me that my story was 'sappy,'and that I'm actually gay."
He nodded, but I could tell that he just didn't comprehend the gravity of my statement. "A troll. Tell me, Lyss, do you have to spend a lot of time under bridges or anything to talk to these trolls?"
As tears began to form in my eyes, I shook my head and answered. "E-mail."
"I was unaware that trolls had become so technologically advanced."
I stood up straight and dabbed my eyes with the shirt tail of an old blouse I haven't worn for a while to compose myself. "You're making fun of me."
Perry held up his large hand in a peacemaking gesture. "Not at all. I didn't know how much it bothered you to have anybody call one of your stories 'Sappy.' Especially a troll." Of course, I didn't realize that I'd set him up until he nailed me with the obvious retort. "So which sappy story did this troll insult?"
"Stephen Chapter One."
"No kidding, just Chapter One? He didn't even get to the really sappy chapters yet."
"
Stephen
isn't sappy," I blurted out. "And if you had more respect for the dead, you'd know it's a moving, semi-autobiographical..."
"I take it back!" Perry threw up his hands for a moment. "I take it back! I'm sorry I said that about your story." He reached in and took my bare arm gently with one hand. "So, troll confrontations aside, why are you standing naked in the closet?"
"He said 'I was gay,' so I thought I'd come out of the closet for you." I threw my free arm out in a dancer's
sell
gesture. He didn't buy it. Then I flushed. I could feel my face redden, but I couldn't tell whether any of my obvious embarrassment affected him since like most black people, Perry doesn't redden, he just darkens.
Perry made the shape of an
Oh,