Acting Up

Between the matinee and evening performance
of my two-dow shay, I wander down Shubert Alley
to the flea market and take my place
at the autograph table next to actors too young
to remember the AIDS quilt. If you had tried
to convince me in 1991, that year of eulogies,
that I would outlast those red ribbons,
those needle exchanges,
that I would beat back this rare cancer
to an undetectable nothingness
and sit taking selfies with gushing fans,
I would have thought that you were putting on a show.

--published by frak\ture June 2020