Learn those lives touched
No one would touch you anymore, you said
Your friends had become afraid & could not hold you close.
The word is not in my vocabulary
Afraid is absent from our vocabulary
Is fate because of fear
We’ll never know.
You know, don’t you,
Even those you never knew remember you.
We will do our best to see
That no one will have to live without love
Know what it is like to be shunned
By nurses & friends, hospital employees
Refusing to come into your room
& when they did, they were covered in plastic gloves
& smocks.
Please take the pieces
Please forgive us for getting carried away.
We did it for two reasons—
For all who’ve been lost
& all who’ve lost them.
Fathers, grandparents, sisters, brothers,
Sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, lovers & friends
So good.
We could change things
We could stop the epidemic
We could save you
In the end, of course, we could not
Speak those names found by humanity.
Now cannot put love into the past tense
Above all, love—love very much.
If love could cure!
Each day slowly could not breathe.
Life still lives.
Our memories are you.
Remember this loving
Was dying.
Distort body
Breathing difficult
Lonesomeness is a never-ending ache.
We were barred from seeing
To see to mourn
We tried to forget.
We just can’t let go yet
Hang on
Remember clearly
The best way is with poems
Remember
We were beginning
Dancing true
New meaning
New hope
We have held this hope with the rest.
We stood & did not see death.
Do you see
From the world to whatever awaits.¶¶
¶¶ This documentary poem was made using the letters of contributors to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, each hand-sewn panel of which pays tribute to those who died from the disease. First displayed in 1987, the Quilt is now part of the National AIDS Memorial. As of 2021, it spans 1.2 million square feet & includes more than 48,000 panels. According to UNAIDS, 27.2 to 47.8 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses globally since the start of the AIDS pandemic.