WHERE WILL YOU BE? by Pat Parker (1978)

Boots are being polished They will come Trumperters clean their horns in business suits Chains and locks forged to buy your homes The crusade has begun. and bring bodies to fill your jobs. Once again flags of Christ They will come in robes are unfurled in the dawn to rehabilitate and cries of soul saviors and white coats sing apocalyptic on air waves. to subjugate and where will you be Citizens, good citizens all when they come? parade into voting booths and in self-righteous sanctity Where will we all be X away our right to life. when they come? And they will come -- I do not believe as some that the vote is an end, they will come I fear even more because we are It is just a beginning. defined as opposite – perverse So I must make assessment and we are perverse. Look to you and ask: Where will you be when they come? Every time we watched a queer hassled in the They will not come streets and said nothing – a mob rolling It was an act of perversion. through the streets, but quickly and quietly Everytime we lied about move into our homes the boyfriend or girlfriend and remove the evil, at coffee break – the queerness, It was an act of perversion. the faggotry, the perverseness Everytime we heard, from their midst. "I don't mind gays They will not come but why must they clothed in brown, be blatant?" and said nothing – and swastikas, or It was an act of perversion. bearing chest heavy with gleaming crosses. Everytime we let a mother The time and need lose her child and did not fill for ruses are over. the courtroom – It was an act of perversion.

Everytime we let straights It won't matter make out in our bars while if you're from we couldn't touch because New York of laws – or Los Angeles It was an act of perversion. Galveston or Sioux Falls Everytime we put on the proper It won't matter clothes to go to a family if you're wedding and left our lovers Butch, or Fem at home – Not into roles It was an act of perversion. Monogamous Non Monogamous Everytime we heard It won't matter "Who I go to bed with if you're is my personal choice – Catholic It's personal not political" Baptist and said nothing – Atheist It was an act of perversion. Jewish or M.C.C. Everytime we let straight relatives bury our dead and push our They will come lovers away – They will come It was an act of perversion. to the cities and to the land And they will come. to your front rooms They will come for and in your closets. the perverts They will come for & it won't matter the perverts if you're and where will homosexual, not a faggot you be lesbian, not a When they come? , not queer It won't matter if you own your business have a good job or are on S.S.I. It won't matter if you're Black Native American Asian or White