Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 30, 2019

John Whittier Treat Sweat: A History With Thanks to Dorothy Allison I was twelve and learned to clean my new rifle with gun oil. It stank like sweat. I was thirteen and helped my father change the oil in the pick-up truck. It stank like his sweat. I was fourteen and used baby oil with … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 29, 2019

Jarred Thompson Misty Weather He loved misty weather. The way it made us cling to bedsheets and each other, like vapour clinging to its former self. He loved misty weather. His lampshade hands sheathing the sun whose rays made us spy shapes of families out a blurred horizon. He loved misty weather for how it … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 28, 2019

p.c. scearce Ars Vitae HIV i. results were nights like here, muddled in summer’s sweat opened by fans, breezed , a prophetess either without a heart, or without you—oh uh now I call him him… this audience doesn’t believe poetry— doesn’t , isn’t bringing much to me anymore. my language can’t trick myself to hitch … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 27, 2019

Yrik-Max Valentonis Plague and Prejudice Your liberal reply disturbed me. I wish I could talk to you right now. beating a gay man fighting to lift military ban taboos I miss going out with you gay community marched my fellow AIDS sufferers winning social tolerance ban on homosexuals in the military to greasy all-night diners … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 26, 2019

Mel Waldman The Secret Life of J A Developmental Perspective STAGE I PHILOSOPHER KING J is the philosopher king the flow of the river in glittering opalescence a private spirit revealing the way lover of beauty & the grandeur of the universe phantom visionary & mathematician/logician aware of sin the death & obliteration of the … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 25, 2019

Vernita HallLetter from P-town Dear Gregory, As Pop would say, I’m as happy as a faggot in Boystown—literally. ‘Cause that’s where I am! You and Richard would love it here. Nearly every passing face looks up and smiles. But they hesitate first, searching for—the welcome, I think. Acceptance. And with each shy, hopeful gaze I … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 24, 2019

Raymond Berry Harbinger —For Robyn The times my door kicked in By you, the prophet Predicting my death Because I took it up the ass Each time, I forgave Until something triggered you again This time, rage, because I agreed With the Jacksons attending the BET awards After Michael’s death Telling me to shut up … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 23, 2019

Rodney A. Brown Documenting What Has Come Up With Time A Black boy in Dayton. [I guess I’m still living it. It’s in my blood memory. The summer of 1989 was the peak of men just brutally dropping like flies. And in the same circle. We danced around the reality of not knowing at the … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 22, 2019

Izzy Wilson When the Epidemic Gets Personal 13 years old, but Wide Awake! Told my counselor I am bi today. Her reaction silences me for another 13 years. Ryan White and ACT UP making headlines. Sarcomas and withered bodies flash before us, Then Diana held the babies and A.R.T. rejuvenated life. I cried for the … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 21, 2019

Barbara Rockman Summer Theater: Still We Lust After Because it was going to be Monday and the theater dark, the first boy I loved drove past midnight with our band of line readers for the famous actors and light techs for the famous directors, prop makers and scrim painters, across the Bay State to the … [Read more…]