Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 30, 2017

Michael Broder I had a dream that I was back. —dreamt on the night of April 23 and recorded on the morning of April 24 at 9:24 a.m. I had a dream that I was back. It’s not clear where I had been. I was married to my husband. A man I loved many years … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 29, 2017

Iris Lee We’re Still Here We meet and speak less now about pills and T-cells, so glad to be here when so many aren’t. We meet and speak less now of memorials and tears and the fear, and more now about “what now?” when we meet now in the old bars. We speak about the … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 28, 2017

Barbara Rockman As My Lover Dies of AIDS As the clear cut mountain so the boy incarcerated for a crime he did not commit he wanted to bring his mother bags of gold As the disappeared wolves and crabs so the juniper turns to rust As the boy sought his father’s arms to wrap round … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 27, 2017

Korbin Jones The Epidemic An erasure poem based on Ports of the Sun by Eleanor Early. The graves are a tangle of rust and tattered leaves. There are gay guests. “Your Health.” “My Health.” Sounds something like possession. They abandon the place. The first to die in horrible agony was too much for the rest, … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 26, 2017

Andrea L. Watson Requiem in Radiant Time for B. Your soul-of-doves flew from Chama toward heart of Antonito, over the 1911 Jewelry Factory, half-past 2 drug dealers marking time in front of the Palace Hotel, nesting finally at the hilltop near your 80-lb mother. You had a good time. The time your 3rd grade teacher … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 25, 2017

Dennis Rhodes At the Monster My body is as undetectable as the virus lurking within it, standing in the heated crowd along the dance floor. Old and sober. That’s the best I can say for myself, the finest example I can set for all the young men around me. I’m not nostalgic or sentimental: I … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 24, 2017

Keiko Lane late fall hospice fragment In the garden, we build an altar on El Dia de Los Muertos, searching for the thinning veil between worlds. Climbing the walls around us, bougainvillea lit by the light of dead stars. Leonid meteors make their way through the night, trailing tails of their flame’s demise. His eyes … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 23, 2017

Mark Ward Bare The television glowed red with stretchmarks unable to contain the friction displayed within perfect bodies light throws shadows, fables of how the game is played. It’s easy to subdivide derision, to overwhelm risk with validation, hands and skin accepting benediction. Tonight’s lit with a well-worn negation; moonlight cloaks the animal, makes it … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 22, 2017

Vernita Hall I Knew a Man for Gregory I knew a man who could charm the coin from Charon’s hand or Midas’, too, squeeze lemonade from sand, hula rings like Saturn, drum thunder like Jupiter whenever he laughed, and he laughed some. I knew a man who could dance on the head of a pin … [Read more…]

Na(HIV)PoWriMo ± April 21, 2017

David Groff Revival We made a list of every state we each had sex in. You won with 31, delighted: summer stock. Fifty now and dead, you reappear made up at Community Café Stage in Quarryville in performances of You Can’t Take It with You, the owner’s son, the suitor, keen for xylophones and fireworks, … [Read more…]