death

has been your lover

he has brought you

the edges of your life

and now you are looking over

and all we can say is

it's gonna be all right

and I am looking forward

to looking back on these days

when on every corner

someone holds a sign

that says I'm homeless

I'm hungry and

I have AIDS



how will they define our generation

in the coming decades

who will tell the story

and what will they say?

will they say the victims

were thought of as criminals

while the guilty sat on high

deciding their fate

ticking off statistics in their spare time

tell me,

which is the crime?



may you never test positive

pregnancy

HIV

may you never be the receptacle of blame

may you never be the scapegoat

for a whole

world full of shame

may you never be fighting for your life

and at the same time

have to fight for your name



there are too few who open both eyes

we sit back in our easy chairs

and we try to sympathize

whether from the point of a needle or

the edge of our beds

we too, like too many others,

could be dead

our actions

will define us

before a single definition can be said

yeah, so what if god is testing us

what if that's true

what are you going to do

what is the answer

to you