"Being Nancy"

Set in the late Seventies
He was a local boy.
Reading his fictional tale
Gave me so much joy.
That feely good factor
And inner glow
That only those who are gay
Will ever know.
I discovered the book
On a charity shop shelf
Which is just as well
As I'm not a man of wealth.
How I wish I'd been that brave
But I was never as confident
As that character Dave.
From distant recall
The few I 'fumbled with'
Grew up 'totally straight'
And we always talked of girls
Frightened of everyone's hate.
Ironically one of those
With who I never did play
Found out decades later
Was totally gay!
Reading the trials and tribulations
I could hardly wait
Itching to turn the next page
To discover his fate.
Set in East Dulwich
I recognised loads of places
Even though they were made up
In lots of cases.
My teens were messed up
Brainwashed guilty of sin
This book cleansed my soul
So happy for the boy within!

Dulwich Poet 10th June 2014

(In Edinburgh last Friday I bought a book called 'Becoming Nancy' by Terry Ronald, published in 2011. It was about a gay teenager, set in '1970s working class East Dulwich', which is where I grew up! I read it cover to cover yesterday, on the coach journey back to London, and loved it!)