Victor Alcindor
Kaposi Something
I once thought I had AIDS
I was twelve
watching PBS one oppressive night in August
on a shitty 13-inch TV
two gaunt men—I forget their names—cuddled,
cried, and grieved about Kaposi “something”
their faces and hands adorned by
little burnt cornflakes
one man died towards the end
withered body, sharp hipbones, censored genitals,
broken grin
clutched by his fuming companion
the next morning the eczema on my forearms glowed
during breakfast Sue Simmons said
Haitians and AIDS…News at Eleven
I told no one, lived in intervals of fear, until
I made a concoction of
rubbing alcohol, calamine, and hydrogen peroxide
it burned, scabbed,
and went away
Editor’s Note: The PBS broadcast referred to in the poem is Silverlake Life: The View from Here, a 1993 documentary by Peter Friedman and Tom Joslin documenting the final months in the life of Joslin’s partner, Mark Massi, who died of AIDS-related complications on July 1, 1991. The condition referred to is Kaposi’s sarcoma, a skin cancer that was found rarely and chiefly among older men of Mediterranean descent, until it became one of the earliest recognized conditions associated with AIDS in 1981.
Victor Alcindor‘s poems have appeared in Lunch Ticket, The November 3rd Club, and Insanity’s Horse. He holds a BA from The College of New Jersey (formerly Trenton State College), an MA in Criminology from Rutgers University, and a PhD in comparative literature from Drew University. Alcindor lives in South Orange, New Jersey, with his wife and two children, and is an English teacher at West Orange High School.
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Here is today’s prompt
(optional as always)
Today’s poem is by a younger poet looking back at the specter of HIV/AIDS in his own childhood, especially as it was represented in the media. Write a poem addressing the impact HIV/AIDS had on you when you were growing up. Another great example of this type is the poem “AIDS” by Ada Limón, written for the HIV Here & Now project in 2016.