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Poems for AIDS Awareness Month | December 27, 2020 | Jennifer Shneiderman

Jennifer Shneiderman1995 Nurses chatter in TagalogObliviously buttering toastWith tongue depressors.Dirty upper windows revealIV poles slipping silently by like ships mastsStealthy patientsPlaying cat and mouse with securityAnd T-Cell countsFurtive lighters flare in the stairwellThe desperateSeeking cigarettes and conversationOn forbidden rooftops.Survivors slouch on cold linoleumAnd empty pharmacy cartonsAn impromptu shivaUnder the cruel shadow of florescent light. This … [Read more…]

Poems for AIDS Awareness Month | December 25, 2020 | Davidson Garrett

Davidson Garrett Il Fantasma: Living at the McBurney YMCA Like Mad Lucia di Lammermoor I wander eerie halls in stark darkness not in a bloody wedding gown— but tiptoeing, wrapped in a white towel. Overwrought Lucia—murdered her husband because of an unwanted forced nuptial. My marriage to art—paralyzed with fear from a virus looming in … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 17, 2020

Marjorie Moorhead The Elms Coronavirus Diary V 3/24/2020 A first death from covid-19 in our state. NH is small, but it’s connected to VT, which connects to NY; the current pandemic “hot spot” of the east coast. Where our older son now lives. NYC is where he’s been able to thrive. Will he survive? Before … [Read more…]

Poem 24 ± November 24, 2018

Rob Jacques HIV/AIDS 1980s I’m thinking of the life of a man looking back who asks was any of it real, now that he’s locked inside his history. — Stanley Plumly The imperative to love is the imperative above all else. One should not die because one eats, breathes, or loves. Nature is blind in … [Read more…]

My Work Doing HIV Testing in Sex Venues

By Stephen S. Mills Poet and author of He Do the Gay Man in Different Voices and A History of the Unmarried The first image I associated with HIV was Judith Light in the ABC television movie The Ryan White Story, which aired in 1989. Light played the mother of the young boy in Indiana … [Read more…]

Poem 316 ± April 15, 2016

Lucy Sheen Grief Dark Deep An emotional duvet A patched work Stitched with frayed time Worn out thread-bare excuses Guilt woven in and out of the feeling weft The centre did not hold The synapse fractured Flaying the fabric of sensation Allowing the deep abyss to perforate the cover Haemorrhages through Staining the quilt Spreading … [Read more…]

Poem 248 ± February 7, 2016

Trivarna Hariharan Answers EDITOR’S NOTE: To preserve the complex formatting of this poem, we have included it as a PDF that will open in a separate tab when you click on the title below: Trivarna Hariharan “Answers”   Trivarna Hariharan is the author of Home and Other Places, forthcoming from  Nivasini Publishers (2016). Her work … [Read more…]

Poem 224 ± January 14, 2016

Elizabeth Barrett Browning A Dead Rose O Rose! who dares to name thee? No longer roseate now, nor soft, nor sweet; But pale, and hard, and dry, as stubble-wheat, Kept seven years in a drawer, thy titles shame thee. The breeze that used to blow thee Between the hedgerow thorns, and take away An odour … [Read more…]

Poem 136 ± October 18, 2015

Randall Horton the new love new love wearing logical rouge lipstick, conceptually & very positive, sashays: illogical would be too ignorant a testimonial when strolling stiletto heel pumps against the grain of traffic. an illusion, is art, magicians never predict what’s under the skirt: make-believe tina turner legs. an optical illusion: under a chandelier of … [Read more…]

Poem 116 ± September 28, 2015

Liam O’Brien L. Sullivan Parrot sounds. His room was full of them, great cages. Mirrors, photographs, and Lou so little in his clothes. I could be there. He said, Tuberculosis of the blood. There’s power. Somebody has to open their big mouth, he said, and did. So, history. A slight man getting slighter: there is … [Read more…]