The nurse glared at me
With eyes
Like needles tensing every muscle in my body
Her voice projected
“Within the past year, have you had *** with another man?”
Do cows moo?
Is water wet?
I’M A GAY MAN
Can you go a whole year without ***, Nurse

Turned away by the nurse
I walk home dejected
Reflecting on my body
Dissect me, Nurse
Coronal
Sagittal
Transverse
You will find that
We are one in the same kind
Blood brothers
Blood sisters
Bathing in the same pool of life
Swim
Float
Tread
Cleanse in the blood bath
But no
The Nurse
Pouring poisonous prosecutions into the placidity
Leaves me to drown in the slimy slander
“I am not poison!
I am not less!
I am not the labels you continuously condemn onto me!”
Let me bleed for another’s breath

Nurse,
Look at the parched patients
Surrounding this body of blood
Vessels yearning, screaming to be quenched
Blood
Blood
Blood
Take me
Use my healthy privilege
So you can live another day

Nurse, nurse, nurse
Aid and AIDS
Two separate entities
Me
Forced into association with the demon
Promiscuous sodomites of hell
I melt before you
Provide the aid they need
And Jesus said,
“This is my blood of the covenant
Poured out for many”