Love Him

“Love him,’ said Jacques, with vehemence,

 ‘love him and let him love you. 

Do you think anything else 

under heaven really matters? 

And how long, at the best, can it last, 

since you are both men 

and still have everywhere to go? 

Only five minutes, I assure you, only five minutes, 

and most of that, helas! in the dark. 

And if you think of them as dirty, 

then they will be dirty— 

they will be dirty because you will be giving nothing,

 you will be despising your flesh and his. 

But you can make your time together anything but dirty, 

you can give each other something which will make both of you better—

forever—if you will not be ashamed, if you will only not play it safe.’ 

He paused, watching me, and then looked down to his cognac. 

‘You play it safe long enough,’ he said, in a different tone, 

‘and you’ll end up trapped in your own dirty body, 

forever and forever and forever—

like me.”

~ James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room