Francis Bennion - Poetry - Poemotions - A Man's Desire for a Boy

While, My Lord, that obviously necessary preparation is being undertaken
I feel it to be my duty, at the risk of incurring your displeasure, to say just a word . . .

Start of page 252 in the book

The Judge:

Do be silent Mr . . . er . . . er . . .
the defendant has informed me he has no words of any description to put forward.

Counsel for the Defence:

Your Lordship is, as always, well aware of the tradition of the Bar
never to be silenced by the Bench; always to say whatever there is to be said...

The Judge:

Oh very well, if you must, Mr . . . er . . . er . . .
proceed if you must, if you really feel you must . . .

Counsel for the Defence:

In legal terms, the Prisoner has committed an indecent assault.
An under age child cannot give valid permission to anything he likes.
So a loving sexual hand laid on him, even with his jumping joy,
constitutes in law what amounts to a grave criminal offence . . .

The Judge:

Get to the point, do get to the point, Mr . . . er . . . er . . .

Counsel for the Defence:

Legal guilt is inevitable, but this is a plea in mitigation:
your Lordship is called upon to determine the appropriate penalty.
It is my duty to suggest that the stallions may not be altogether suitable:
what the Prisoner merits is a chance to love that boy some more.

The Judge:

This is intolerable, and beyond all conventional licence to the Bar.
As soon as this trial is over I shall report you to your Inn of Court.

Start of page 253 in the book

Counsel for the Defence (suavely):

But first I must dispose of the idea that the Prisoner is some kind of monster.
His love for that pubescent boy is true, and acknowledges his needs -
for the boy has only just become aware of sexual feelings.
Surrounding adults, in what I submit is a criminal conspiracy,
combine to ignore them.

This lad's potent urges are subjected to a conspiracy of silence denying them.
This concealment, My Lord, is contrary to public policy and human rights.
Tense youths, denied their sexuality, are prone to dash out and rape old ladies.
The Prisoner, may it please Your Lordship, was not urgent for his own pleasure;
only in displaying worship before a young boy's tender shrine.

The Judge:

That will do, Mr . . . er . . . er . . . that is really quite sufficient;
you have had more than enough time to deploy your argument.
I shall carefully consider every word you have uttered in this cause.
Usher - surely those stallions must be ready by now?

Start of page 254 in the book

Poor Boys

Many poor boys get the shock of their lives
when with their artless consent men molest them sexually.
They invade, these grown men, the poor boy's inmost space:
that seemingly shameful place, which the poor boy
has not yet mastered or understood (do give him a chance).

The poor boy thinks this invasion shameful: it worries him.
It is ordinary not shameful - but nobody told him that, the poor boy.
Nobody told him how trivial and commonplace that comfy act was.
Yet who do these grown men think they are, thus pompously to invade
the poor boy's private place?

Being so ignorant, the poor boy
is in line to suffer endlessly for ever after
from what the grown man did in the boy's private place (perhaps even gratifying his guilt).
Someone should tell the poor boy what is what -
instead of leaving him to suffer uselessly (but of course they don't/won't).

Start of page 255 in the book

How Father Peter Succumbed to the Mystery of Evil

When the portly Roman Catholic priest, Father Peter,
lasciviously fondled the young acolyte Paul
in the candle-smoked vestry, stroking his tender boy's body,
just after the solemn ceremonies had concluded in the chapel,
the Father was accused of succumbing
to the mystery of evil.

That was the charge laid against this holy priest, poor man,
in the Consistory Court, by the Vicar General,
with a very great deal of solemnity -
and not a little medieval Church pomp -
bell book and candle being threatened in the background,
with in the foreground the sobbing witness Paul.

The basis of the charge was the flesh; the accused Father
was not supposed to have flesh, or be concerned with the flesh of others.
As he knew, his Holy Father the Pope frowned
on this peculiar idea of people having flesh or being concerned with it -
especially ordained holy Fathers
washing up in a candle-smoked vestry with a youthful acolyte standing nearby.

When it came to his defence, Father Peter felt destroyed
by having been accused of succumbing to the mystery of evil.
If evil is, after all these years, still a mystery he muttered
what has the Church been doing?
How can it accuse me of succumbing
to what it still does not know?

He was nevertheless unfrocked.