And These Are Just a Few ...

By Melvin Dixon
This poem is for the epidemic dead and the living. Remember them?
Your neighbors, your siblings, your daughters and your sons.

This poem is for Robert, remember Bob? He told me my lover’s name
Before we had even met. Then he went dancing alone until daybreak.

This poem is for Wilbert, remember Will? Who served his country
With diplomacy and grace. He showed Africa that we all are kin.

This poem is for Joseph, remember Joe? Whose longing
For the language of  black men loving black men became our lore.

This poem is for Samuel, remember Sam? Who taught those who could
Barely read until the skin around his mouth peeled off  in pages.

This poem is for Joel, remember Joel? A dazzler of demography,
A man for numbers, student of the migratory patterns of mankind.

This poem is for Gridley, remember Grid? He cried when he got sick.
Then left Peru for Wisconsin where he felt safe. He died there.

This poem is for Allan, remember Al? Who loved theater, and dance.
He worked with homeless teens and returned home too thin to twirl.

This poem is for Christopher, remember Chris? The Bergdorf windows
He dressed. The color he left behind when he no longer could see.

This poem is for Gregory, remember Greg? Going, then gone.
Journalist, the print of his legacy read from D.C. to Detroit.

This poem is for Chester, remember Chet? Whose battered lungs
Left him screaming the purest poetry on empty hospital walls.

This poem is for Rita and Eddie. They taught us sign language
For love: three fingers teasing the air above a bridge of knuckles.

This poem is for Richard, remember Rich? Poised with puns
For the quick meter of his mind, for the constancy of our embrace.

This poem is for the epidemic living and the dead.
Remember them, remember me.

Notes:

This poem was previously published in Love’s Instruments (Tia Chucha Press, 1995) and is part of the portfolio “Melvin Dixon: I’ll Be Somewhere Listening for My Name.” © Melvin Dixon and used with permission of the author’s estate. You can read the rest of the portfolio in the April 2024 issue.

Source: Poetry (April 2024)