latex of our lives

Kaushalya Bannerji
A New Rememberance
(Toronto: TSAR, 1993)

"THIS IS NOT AN ELEGY"

What to say when a friend
becomes a corpse

[…]

And what life is this?
The constant vigilance or weariness.
The latex of our lives
stretched to snapping.

There is a head note: "I wrote this poem in an attempt to come to terms with the sense of loss and homophobia that can surround the lesbian and gay communities when we are so often confronted with AIDS-related deaths."

I hear in this image all the pent up frustration of trying to get safe sex messages out in the face of attempts to muzzle the plain speaking.

And so for day 1921
17.03.2012