David Williams

David M. Williams is a poet and singer-songwriter who came to these pursuits later in life. He is a retired Program Director and Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages for adult immigrant parents and international students. His poetry has been published by Time of Singing, Tiferet, the Gazette of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, and the annual Riverside Poets Anthology. He lives in South Orange, NJ with his husband, the cellist and author David Black.

Sixteen and Twenty-One

I was attracted to him.
I was 16, he was 21

When he told me I could have dinner
with him and his friend in the City
I knew I had made my decision.
When I phoned my host in the suburbs
it was done.  There was no turning back.
I was 16, he was 21

His seducing of me happened slowly, gently.
The  next day I couldn’t
tell anyone, though I
was burning to talk about
my first sexual experience.
I was 16, he was 21

Then an epiphany told me

it really wasn’t love after all,

it was sexual abuse and

I had kept MYSELF in prison.

I am 66, he is 71.