Classic Poem

—Only Silly Faggots Know only faggots know
only silly faggots know
pain, nights and nights of dark
streets, rain, raining alone
and parks full of crocodiles
Men who beat up faggots know crocodiles
eat men slowly, little by little bit by bit
and shit them out into the dark sewage water
of jungles without flowers—but
only silly faggots know and know and know
and see and see and see cha-cha down the streets of tinsel
and dinosaur rhinestone teeth and know and know and know
what only silly faggots know and drugs don't know
and Men who beat up faggots don't know
and faggots from the Stock Exchange don't know
and faggots from Abercrombie and Fitch don't know
and faggots from the Metropolitan Opera don't know

but the subways at three o'clock in the morning know
and Christopher Street at 4 a.m. knows
and the baths too exhausted to care
and too exalted to give up know
and split the sides with tell-it-all
tell-it-all tell-it-all tell-it-all
because that's what we're here for
and that's why I love you
because you do know
where I have been and you have walked with me
through the mined crocodile fields
and passed the straight apes on the street corners
and gone through the morning hours with me, afraid
oh, sooooo afraid,
but not turned-off, not to turn back
but to reach for me
to reach out for me sitting here
when I needed you
because only you know.