By Walter R. Holland
( 1984 )
So many were dying, but in the background I
could hear the convention—Reagan speaking
on TV and I wanted to ask you to help me.
Read more story below....
I was losing my friends. It was crazy in the City. Did Reagan
say anything of the 'gay disease'? Did you know
of the chaos? Care being refused—
funeral homes 'closed,' E.R.s packed—
but Reagan was at the podium and I could hear
the cheering and imagined the faces gloating
on the screen and I wanted to ask you
how you could support him,
when behind all their talk
was your scared son?
Walter Holland, Ph.D., is the author of A Journal of the Plague Years: Poems 1979-1992 and Transatlantic as well as one novel, The March. His work has appeared in The Antioch Review, HazMat, Redivider, Rhino and other journals and anthologies. He teaches literature in New York City at the New School and is also a physical therapist.
