HIV-1 M
from black
indiscriminate womb
We swarmed
simian streams
until We discovered
you
We changed
to fit
inside We hatched
We modify
improving perfection unrelated to singular longevity
no fair-weather
sentiment clouds
Our purpose
no individuation
infects the hive
replication Our singular achievement
in you We are
becoming
you are just
another chimp
fecund oasis of evolution
Summer Arts Camp
By bare-bulb light from center stage
you taught Tai-Chi and I
took refuge:
Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail
Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane
Carrying the Tiger Over the Mountain;
after camp was over,
after Max caught me
looking
in the dressing room,
after a teacher shouted “Don’t
deliver your lines
like a little girl”
and an older boy called me
fag
and Max
laughed
I practiced
Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail
Parting the Wild Horse’s Mane
Carrying the Tiger Over the Mountain
because I knew when you spoke
we were kin
and I hoped
with practice to be
just like you.
– For (write in your
favorite camp counselor
here:
You know the one.
The one who wore
capezios
and black, sleeveless t-shirts,
the one who smoked
Virginia Slims with a
Dietrich-Davis-Taylor flair,
the one who lent you
tapes, ‘A Little Night Music,’
‘The Rink,’ Judy at Carnegie Hall,
the one who
never came back and
no one said
why.
For all of them.)
Photo credit: Drew Xeron
Greg Marzullo is an award-winning writer and journalist who has worked for the Washington Blade and the Phoenix New Times, among other publications. He won a Society for Professional Journalists award for arts criticism, secured a semi-finalist place in 2017's Tucson Festival of Books for his poetry and was published on the 'HIV Here & Now' website as part of their poem-a-day feature leading up to World AIDS Day.