Julene T. Weaver
a new line cracked down through this body
like a rock slammed against a windshield
shattered to a star with radiating lines,
not pierced, but with full capacity to kill—
a seething throb—
an endless overactive immune system.
Now, lost beyond what was possible
when I was young, with unmarked blood—
before this virus—
I had time in childhood untainted
till the moment that nicked my aura
the errant mishap that started with death,
loss, grief—
the love of my life, my beloved whistling
father, who gave love every season,
we were a family young and beautiful.
after the war, he hitchhiked home
cross country, determined
to make a life filled with love
he did not live to see it splinter.
Julene Tripp Weaver is the author of truth be bold—Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS (Finishing Line Press, 2017), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Nonfiction. A contributor to HIV Here & Now, you can also find her work online at The Seattle Review of Books, and Writing in a Woman’s Voice. Visit her website and follow her on Twitter @trippweavepoet.
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Here is today’s prompt
(optional as always)
Write a poem about being at risk for HIV infection in 2018. For some information that might help your poetic process on this topic, check out this page on who is at risk for HIV.