First Kiss

 
(Casting Sunday, Bloody Sunday, 1971)
 
“I’m sorry Jack,
If this were happening on stage,
I wouldn’t hesitate. Between us
Giles and I could create a
performance that worked. In that
intense and living atmosphere,
our kiss could have all the dirty
shock your author wants to give it.
 
“But not in a movie!
I just can’t be the first star
to kiss another man on film.
I know the world respects
you Jack, and there’d be
Oscars too, but there it would
be, one hundred times larger
than life and canned for
posterity. What sort of a career
could my agent carve out for me
after that kind of a fuss?
 
 “I know I signed the contract,
Jack. I was happy at the thought
of working with you, and Giles
and I have known each other
since we met first on some long ago
piece of Shakespeare telly.
 
     “It’s just a kiss,
a little part of the actor’s trade.
But the movie audience have
never seen two men doing it.
If I were throttling him or beating him
to death, some few sensitive souls
might look away, but when they
see the elderly doctor kissing
his young man, that will just
be tabloid scandal. You’ll have to find
another actor, Jack.
Kissing Giles is not for me.”