April and I walk
from school
to street corner
to store,
passing out
flyers
for the AIDS Walk.
We curve through the crowded blocks,
shoulder to shoulder,
stream through the streets.
Carol at the Starlight Diner
lets us put a stack
on the windowsill.
Chloe puts some up
in her own neighborhood.
The movie theater won’t take the flyers.
Celestial Treasures does, of course.
Others fly away
in the early May winds.
The last place we hit
is Adam’s lobby.
Put some in an envelope,
label it 11C.
I might never hear from Adam again,
so he might never know:
when he pushed me out
I floated
into the black
and found there
the light of my family and true friends.
And like a real North Star
it guided me home.