Julene Tripp Weaver
What is Right
This whimper—I have AIDS
through the years—this cry—
this odd call we exude
with those we barely know, but
know like the veins under our skin,
how alike we are, how different.
This universal disease
we carry, this holding of time
and space and culture
through generations—we’ve built
a mass of extreme citizen science
from cities to remote villages.
Many of us live beneath
the surface, off the bell curve
wise with our lived experience—
this art of survival—we must scream,
must whimper, we must be the most self
we can be, we must shine.
Called to live beyond the daily
facade, we hold place and time,
a wide sound, a long winding
breath hollow from our gut,
a wavering whimper from deep,
our voice makes space for what is right.
Julene Tripp Weaver is the author of a chapbook and two full-length poetry collections, including truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS (Finishing Line Press, 2017), winner of Bisexual Book Award and finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Her work has appeared in The Seattle Review of Books, Mad Swirl, the Stonewall Legacy Anthology and the Day Without Art Special 30 Year Edition.
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Here is today’s prompt
(optional as always)
Today’s poem uses the pronoun “we.” Write a poem in which you experiment with different pronouns—I, you, he, she, we, they.
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