Cuckoo
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
“Love Me and Leave Me to Die . . . Carry On, Carry On”
…………
The soundtrack for the plague of AIDS became
The music of that sweat-toothed guy on stage
From Zanzibar, that Mercury. Aflame
With him and AIDS, the time was like a cage
In which we had to share intensity
In claustrophobic spaces where his breath
Was mixed up with a crowd-like density
Of passion, drums, hard guitar, and death.
What was the Middle Ages’ backdrop sound
For flea-infested rats, bubonic plague,
And hideous suffering? Was it profound
Gregorian chant? Did some gay tune stravaig
The world, like “Sumer is icumen in,”
To treat those millions for their happy sin?