Usually write an essay for Dec 1, World AIDS Day, but this year a remembrance
Chamber dance
(item- fr 1988. Two ballet dancers jumped from their midtown apartment…in an apparent… at press time, their names have not…)
The cobalt realm
vanquished                                              dying in a dream
Earth fire water air        indigo               before the corps de ballet
With their hands reaching to infinity
The dancers of the promontory past Balanchine
The ladies of enlightenment                          blue

A split infinitive of           aloneness because it would           always be revisited

remembered, dreamed
It was the same fever only two nights  before except

With a replay of the conversation

“I’m a little afraid, not all but”   “yes, what should we do?”

“Nothing, go back to sleep Hold me

don’t see anybody until we know what we already know”
So that was our life.                                    Cold, together, hunted.
In a couple of weeks it

all changed before we knew it-

the skipped classes
last minute calls of performance subs

the pretend dinners and rehearsals.
“we should tell them” I said.   “nothing, they already know” he said.

I got the sickest first but we found out later

that medically he was in much worse shape

that anything could happen.

It was going to be slower with me.

It was the last time we made love

then we opened all the windows

heard Serenade

Tchaikovsky morning finally
The Ladies of the ensemble
weren’t saying goodbye.