World AIDS Day

we face the elders
as they drink orange
soda, all dressed up they
look funny to us
we try to take a
picture but it's blurry.

the speaker's
woofer pulses like a
looney toon, punching at
our ears in
multilingual fists.
the volume legitimizes
the event. if it weren't
at least a little
painful, it wouldn't be cool.

tiny fingers cramp, slipping
over the sign
Ensemble Nous Vaincrons Le SIDA.
Préservez Notre Avenir.
they stand trying on
aloof faces, yawning
and waiting
for their pictures to be taken.
no one mentions
how they're not in school.

it is hot, beyond hot, so
hot the molecules in
the air keep fainting
and the others fan them and
faint and they keep switching and
I'm waiting for a
moment they(re all down.

nevertheless a parade was
marched, a race was run, a
sheep was won. I shake my
head at the jeans and jackets
of the city kids who look
good when I want to
be naked at the bottom
of a river.

they sweat in a line so long it hurts to
take in, stretching like a snake
filled with poison.

kids swear they're 16, sneak
in; they want the free
t-shirt and baggie of
water abd too-loud
music and another
day gone. so be it
if to get that
they must learn
their results came back

positive.