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 follow them

across the courtyard, as far as he can see, following, then later
unfollowing, not the thing, but the thing it might have become.

 

Keiko Lane, MFT, is a psychotherapist and educator in Berkeley, CA. A poet and essayist, she writes and teaches about the the intersections of queer culture and kinship, oppression resistance, racial and gender justice, HIV criminalization, reproductive justice, and liberation psychology. Her writing has appeared most recently in The Feminist Porn Book, Queering Sexual Violence, The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Heath and Healthcare, and online on TheRumpus.com, TheFeministWire.com, and TheBody.com. www.keikolanemft.com.

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Here is today’s prompt

(optional as always)

Write a poem about being on PEP—post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV. PEP started in the 1990s as a response to occupational exposures—mostly accidental needle sticks among healthcare workers. But more recently, PEP has been offered to people who have a possible exposure to HIV from sex or sharing needles when injecting drug. Read more about PEP for non-occupations exposures here.