 |
"Keith Haring," 1988
Juan Rivera, c-print, 6" x 4" |
Below is a spoken word piece originally delivered at a salon in Montreal.
The New Equation
April 2012
It's that awkward moment when...
You're naked in bed with a boy you've just made out with
on a rooftop.
Looking up at the little toy cross
On top of the big, dark mountain.
That awkward moment where you bring in the Greek chorus
Of Angels in
America characters
And the dump truck of dead bodies and
News segments of ashes actions
And Diamanda Galas howling over Fire in My Belly.
That awkward moment when you decide to cough it up
To rip the band-aid off the unhealed wound
And tell him:
I just need to tell you something that's really not easy
to say and I'm legally required to tell you before we take this any further:
I have been shortlisted for a very special prize.
I am on the shortlist for those who didn't win the bet.
I am biopolitically pegged for a lifetime of awkward
moments.
There's 50 parts per millilitre of me
That are Having It Very
difficult; that are too late for a vaccine,
That didn't do their due diligence
And that echo a Harsh Interior Voice
Saying “stay away,”
Even though any other combination of bodies in a moment
like this
Would just be getting it on right now.
It's that awkward moment where you look up at the
SILENCE = DEATH poster
On his cluttered bedroom wall
And say the words
huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnaIiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmhivpositivehhhhhhbbbbbmm
Only to see him freeze, lose his boner, sigh,
And explain trippingly that he has an anxiety disorder
And “just can't take it right now.”
It's that awkward moment when you want to rip a
hypocritical poster off someone's wall
Or at least half of it:
SILENCE = riiippppppp
crumple crumple
SILENCE =
SILENCE = SEX
All those posters say THAT to me now:
Silence equals sex.
If you just keep your mouth shut
And don't talk about cells and replication and
undetectability
And minor cuts or abrasions
And rinsing with lemon juice
And tests every three months
And how you ever got it in the first place...
“Oh,” you ask “you were in a video PSA about serophobia
too?”
“Yes, I'm sure you are very open-minded.
Thank you for showing me that,” you say,
As you put your clothes back on.
SILENCE = SEX
Get used to the new equation,
Cause these bastards just don't know the math.
BoÃsin Murphy is the nom de plume of a Canadian
fag who has been poz since 2006. Himself only one year older than the "discovery"
of AIDS, he writes under this loosely concealed pseudonym because he feels
"overpowered" by too many people knowing that thing he's supposed to
tell everybody. Forthcoming projects include a collaboration on the Poster/Virus
series with AIDS ACTION NOW!, quitting smoking, and trying, as always, to get
laid.
