Joss Barton
HIV IS MAGIC
HIV IS MAGIC
the virus casts seroconversion spells
into pink flesh
wet with salt
and bleeding sap
onto worn bleach stained sheets
HIV IS MAGIC
it pulls rabbits from the rosebud holes
HIV IS MAGIC
it makes brooms dance across the floor sweeping up cocaine and shards of molly rock
bEPITY-bOOPITY-bOO
drag queens untuck their cocks from blue ball gowns and wave them like wands over the heads of shirtless faggots sniffing poppers on crowded dance floors
bEPITY-bOOPITY-bOO
we always knew our bodies were vessels of black magik
we demolished civilizations great and small
we turned out tanned farm boys on the streets of L.A.
making them stroll parking lots
their white smiles glowing under street lamps
bEPITY-bOOPITY-bOO
white men fuck the cotton holes of black boy voodoo dolls while the hairy cunts of trans men are cream pied and streamed across gay communist porno sites
this bitch stays on the Truvada buffet
we call her the
TRUVADA RYDR
she summons white demons from the graves of aids nostalgia
commands them to suck and pinch her nipples until the endorphins flood her head with cum lusts
TRUVADA RYDR
exhales ganja clouds and snorts hills of pink molly before slipping on her iridescent pumps
she brushes her face with blush
and paints her lips with raw reds
TRUVADA RYDR
burns at the stake
in the name of more respectable faggots.
Joss Barton is a writer, photographer, journalist, and artist documenting queer and trans* life and love in St. Louis. She was a 2013 Fiction Fellow at the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Emerging LGBT Writers Retreat and this summer was a contributing artist for Nine Network’s Public Media Commons Artist Showcase. She is also an alumna of the Regional Arts Commission’s Community Arts Training Institute. Her work has been published by Ethica Press, Vice Magazine, and Vetch Poetry: A Transgender Poetry Journal.
This poem appeared on Joss’s tumblr, New Amurican Gospels: Queer art & life in this terrifying New Amurica.
EDITOR’S NOTE: “joss barton is the future” (Stephen Farquhar).