[Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008, los angeles] my name is richard kearns. i am a 57-year old gay man alive with AIDS for more than 20 years. i am a long-term survivor. i am an AIDS activist. i am a medical cannabis patient and advocate. i am a poet and journalist and publish http://aids-write.org. . . .
i want to share with you a new poem in observance of world AIDS day.
skipping stones
round flat dark
heart bones
cross the wide
sky-shining
waters to the far
shore of my
high-school-aged
willow-wept midwest
lagoon lifetimes &
worlds & epics agoskipping stones
round flat dark
heart bones
my nurse remembers
too from her life’s journeys
first light on the beach
at dominica’s true lagoon
spinning shale to
chase the sharks &
bigfish awayskipping stones
round flat dark
heart bones
slicking past the wet
aching to fly
never too high
lest i drown
rebounding
low & sweet
braving depths ever
deep & deeper & as
i kiss & turn & lift &
rush ahead, only one
direction matters & it
ain’t up — it’s round & around &
perhaps beneath an
algae-green & unreflecting
wave, or just as perhaps
in leaps over
the cloudy mudmesslacking wings, my straggling feet
weary-scrape along & i feel every
journey’s end approaching
how soon the shore? how soon?oh, i am a skipping stone a
round flat AIDS-dark
heartbroken bone
sailing, sailing, maybe failing
maybe not, singing, wailing
trailing quiet waterwakes of
sorrow waiting to discover
the new world
to whose shore i will
rush to recover
what unlost love
remains inside & be
tempted to fling myself again into
swift, determined & uncertain
AIDSflight
namasté
—richard kearns
from the achives at aids-write.org
Filed under: AIDS & aging, AIDS activism, blog/vlog, contains rk's origianal artwork, cultural activism, havvacc storytelling text, HIV/AIDS, hiv/aids global, hiv/aids in california, hiv/aids united states, HIVERS/PWAs over 50, new media, poetry, politics, public health policy
