Poem 19 ± World AIDS Day 2017

Rodney Terich Leonard
Carnal In A Time of PrEP

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M4M—
lights low on my knees or ass up
vgl/ddf white, 29, gym body
sane & safeub2HIV-negative
as of yesterday 10/08/15
love to down & mount BBC
total anonymous here
prefer DL daddy types
cock pic gets reply

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October’s
beyond didanosine
or videx®
stavudine
or zerit®
zidovudine
or retrovir®
we come to
tenofovir/emtricitabine
or truvada®
i’m on PrEP

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Silver Schwinn leaning against the wall
heels & cheeks glad on a stool
i pipe
we don’t kiss
i bite neck
i think i hear
more afraid of desire than dying
i up my grunt
the buzzer read Canup
never saw his face

 

logoRodney Terich Leonard is the founder of the Harlem Artists Salon which showcases writers, scholars, musicians and visual artists at various career levels. His work has appeared in The Red River Review, Margie, The Huffington Post, Callaloo, The New York Times, and The Village Voice, as well as in the anthology For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home (Magnus Books, 2012), edited by Keith Boykin, and other publications. A resident of New York City, he holds degrees from New School University and NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

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