Of Trumpets and Strumpets

Many times
When I am
Home alone
Late at night
I can still
Hear the siren
Song
Of the
Streets
Calling out
To me
I can still hear
The neighborhood
Strumpets and
Trumpets
Calling
Out to me
Saying
Come on out
And play
What have
You got to lose?
It is an old
Siren call
One that
I have listened to
And responded to
Many times
During my
Squandered
Youth
When I was
Down on my
Heels
And down
On my luck
But then
People
Began to die
In droves
During the late
Seventies and
Eighties
From
A disease
That had the rather
Silly name of
AIDS
Acquired Immune
Deficiency
Syndrome
Caused by
A virus
Named
HIV
People were
Dying from
Mysterious
Infections
That doctors
Had never
Seen before
And there
Were these
Purple blotches
Of cancer
Called
Kaposi Sarcoma
That fairly
Screamed to the
World
That so and so
Had this modern
Day plague
And there was
No known treatment
And no known cure
And people were
Dying in droves
Needless to say
HIV and AIDS
Put the brakes
On the so-called
Sexual revolution
That had spawned
Hook up joints
Like Plato’s Retreat
In NYC
And in cities
All across the
USA
In the gay community
The free and feckless
Open exchange of
Sexual favors
In the notorious
Bath houses of
Manhattan and
San Francisco
Also came to a
Screeching halt
As this unforgiving
Killer strode the land
Like a colossus
Were we heading
Back to the Dark Ages
When the Black Death
Ravaged Europe
And destroyed 50% of
Europe’s population?
There were many
In the scientific community
Who openly speculated
That such
An outcome
Could indeed
Very well be
The case

So much for listening
To the siren songs
Of Strumpets and
Trumpets
It was nothing
Short of a miracle
That any of us
Managed to survive
If you are one
Of the survivors
Of the epidemic
You already know
How lucky you are
To have dodged
The HIV bullet
As for me
Once I put down the
Loaded revolver
Of unprotected sex
I never tried
To play
Russian roulette
With HIV
Ever again

Jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, Pa. 2011