Sylvain Et Lola Poem by John Fairlamb

They couldn't be more different:
Sylvain in his sixties and Lola, her twenties

But each has known trauma.

The older trauma was the younger's.
Just a child of ten,
Not sure what was happening when
Lola watched his mother go through a 'violent depression'.
Could he lose her? - What would happen then?

His mum did come through that traumatic time for her, and for him.

Sylvain - the violence came much more literally and suddenly
And more recently (sadly homophobia is not dead) .

Out of nowhere, he was set upon by thugs who threw him to the ground,
Hurled homophobic slurs at him while they kicked and hit his dancer legs with iron bars.
Not young, Sylvain feared for his life.

As the two shared their hardest times,
you could tell that the telling was to some degree a reliving
of those awful moments - and tears were not far away.

Yet the telling and the tears
both for themselves and for each other
were healing and strengthening.

As the two shared their hardest times,
Lola and Sylvain found a solidarity
And they agreed that tough as those experiences were,
They both emerged stronger..