Fiction: The Chronicles of Swishy Pete

Episode: A Dream Affirmed

Langston Hughes, I can see the words fall from your mouth as they jumped off the page and smacked me right in the face. Honey, I know you must have understood the yearnings I felt all those years, not as an out writer but as an out man, especially when I read the line: "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun…” in your poem. I have often wondered where I belonged as a gay man with a lifelong dream. As I lie in my bed reading your poems, I fell asleep and had a dream affirmed.

"Excuse me, sir, are you Langston Hughes?"

"It's me, Pete."

"Boo, all my dreams of the future are wrapped up in your poem, A Dream Deferred. I never thought in a million years that my life could be anything, but what it is."

"Well, Pete, today, you have been pulled from the wreckage of your imagination."

"What do you mean, Mr. Hughes?"

"Please, Pete, call me Langston, baby, honey or boo, I don’t mind."

"Ok, Langston, what the hell you mean?"

"All your dreams for the future, Pete, will be exactly what you see, so visualize big bright pictures. What's your passion?"

"I wish I could write poetry that touches the heart of people, like yours"

"Well Pete, what have you written?"

"I wrote a poem called A Group of Friends about my friends, Minnie, Delicious, and Charlotte."

"Ok, Pete let's hear it."

A Group of Friends

Though different in each way
Anyone can see we are friends

Each with a different background
Some are quiet some are not

We share a park bench
And although we will leave it, we all will return

It is our life raft

It allows us the safety to be ourselves
without drowning.

Though many people pass
Most are faceless never to be remembered.

Anyone can see our friendships are strong

It allows our smiles to shine.
It is so easy to see that we are a group of friends.

"So, Langston, what do you think?"

"The purpose of poetry is defined by the poet, your poem demonstrates a distinct connection between all your friends, and I certainly relate to those words."

"How so, Langston?"

"Well," Langston said, "I have a Minnie, Delicious, and Charlotte; their names are Zora Neale Hurston, Wally Thurman, and Richard Bruce Nugent. We are also a group of friends."