http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber
Both poems have appeared on the blogs before, but as my dear mother used
to say, if something is worth saying, it is always worth repeating …
Today is World AIDS Day. Let us not
only remember its victims but also be thankful that continuing research into HIV-AIDS
at least means people are living much longer with the disease and can enjoy a
better quality of life than in earlier years. We can but hope a cure will
eventually be found.
Meanwhile…let’s have fun, but play
safe, yeah?
BODY
POSITIVE
Life,
death!
Floods
me, goads me,
leads
me beside hot beaches
where
I run, a dazzling sea
cheering
me on, and I wonder
where
the lark has gone
that
fixed me so with its cheer
before
abandoning me here
like
a forgotten toy filled with joy
for
its having all but played
me
out before going about nature’s
own
business
Life,
death!
Calls
me, galls me,
urges
me back, back to you;
but
we are gone,
the
taste of us honey on my tongue
where
we romped and played
like
tots in make-believe, heading
barefoot
among jellyfish
for
the Punch and Judy man
who’ll
make us laugh
if
anyone can before the sun goes down,
our
time forgotten
Life,
death!
Overtaken
us now,
beckoning.
I’ll not rush my pace
for
we’ve already run our race,
won
a place among same stars enchanting
same
lulling swell.
All’s
well. One lost toy recovered
and
taken home. Punch and Judy
in
a packing case,
sleeping
it off at some Bed and Breakfast.
I,
filled with a night too exquisite for words
like
those we shared...
Before
AIDS
Copyright R. N. Taber 1996; 2012
[Note: A slightly different version first appeared in August and Genet by R. N. Taber (Wire Poetry Booklet series) Aramby Publishing,1996 and subsequently in various poetry publications prior to its inclusion in Love
And Human Remains by R. N.
Taber, Assembly Books, 2000.]
None
of us, gay or straight can afford to be complacent...
THE TEST
Didn’t test to see if I was HIV positive,
I was scared,
then my lover asked me outright
and I lied…
thinking I wasn’t really lying, believed
I was okay
but the lie began to haunt me more
each night and day,
especially when in my arms he lay
his body in my trust
I should find out, I thought, I must
have a test,
I can’t go on pretending like this
even as we kiss
that there’s no virus in me I can pass on
(as if I would)
but I cannot answer for the unknown,
need to find out
be worthy of his love and trust
or we’ll never last
Eventually, I had the test, it was negative,
I was relieved,
then I asked my lover outright
and he cried...
swore he hadn’t known when we first met
but discovered since,
too scared to tell me in case I got angry
(as I’d been he might reject me)
so what could I do but hold him near
plant kisses in his hair?
Yes, we’ve had the test, my love and me,
it set us free
from doubt and fear because, together,
we are strong,
can deal with whatever this life
dishes us…
beats treading on our dreams, left alone
and up against it;
above all its blessings, place trust
or love will fail the test
[From: On the
Battlefields of Love by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010]
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