Over the weekend, I got an Email from someone asking what it was like when I first started out as a Pagan. My first footsteps on this Path happened during the times of the “Satanic Panic” of the 1980s. I was confused over how secretive all the Pagans were that I met out in the civilian populace. They seemed to be afraid to declare who they were. I didn’t realize that I had more protections than they did. In the military, there was no open discrimination against you over the beliefs that you held. You could easily declare your beliefs and not see any immediate punishment. At least not punishment in the eyes of the military. When I came out openly as Pagan, I was moved to a different shift in my duty section. I found myself on shift with three Charismatic Christian preachers. And each of them took a turn working directly with me. Or I should say, preaching at me while I was working. That was my first taste of what the civilians were getting outside of the boundaries of the base. I decided to write something for Bad Poetry Thursday about that. Its an open schematic; in other words, no rhyming material, but I wanted to give a try to three line stanzas, which I’ve also found harder to write, particularly because I tend to be so verbose.

–T /|\

Fighting Off the Whispers

I try my best not to dwell on times long past
A time when I first walked in the footsteps
Of the Path I find myself currently on

Back when the mere mention of alternative lifestyles
Was enough to send everyone scrambling for the exits
And watching the shadows of the alleyways headed home

A time when being a Witch was a guarantee for your family
To wind up as wards of the state here in Texas
Or a brick to find its way through your front window

Many have called that time “the Satanic Panic”
When the Christian communities lost their shit
And saw the Devil in the shadow of every mailbox

Many have claimed that those times have gone away
Not from what I have seen – the attackers are better hidden
The outcry is not nearly as loud, but the whispers just as damaging

Life is not as easy for those of us who chose a different way to live
Simply because we see love in a different way, see divine differently
Each and every day, we fight our battles against those that condemn

…but fight we shall, because Love should not be caged by a definition
Because our idea of the divine is so much wider and encompassing
Because we choose not to see a life so narrow and unforgiving