Me and you

Aye

Feels like a

Big

Long

Dreamy

Sleep

Coping mechanism

Something that

Little boy

Old Self does

Used* to do

Eating sporadic

Lonely cooking

Housemate       enters room

Lays

Absorbs

Continues

Our friends

Spending the

DOLE

On UberEats

Wigs and

Novelty Lighters

Taste like a

Waste of oil

Brown and Black

People

Approach the

Front Door

Cyclical

Process of

Taking

Consuming

Daily

While these

Wheels would

Arrive –

Forced

Risks

Unable to

Access

WELFARE

Class segregation

Tastes different

When so blatant

Pretty severe

Ablism

Queer erasure

Racism

Classism

Simply swept under

White Carpets

First wave

Designed for

And by

Rich People

Those who came

Back from

Travels

All their contacts

Contrast

Second wave

Culturally

Linguistically NOT WHITE

Hubs

Suburbs

Homes

Centred through

Other’d contagion

Albert Street

Urgently

Locked Inside

No Warning

Spoiled Food

Mistreated

Silence from

Local Government

White Officials

Enforced by

Blue Lives Matter

No other

Lockdown

Looked

Like this

Being WHITE

Must be

Nice

Two Weeks

of White and

Blue Lives

Being Centralised

They said

“Fuck Black Lives”

Behind the

Guise of

Caring Authority

Blood stained

Mouths

Suddenly

Greedy

Grabby

Little

Fingers

Taunted a

Lullaby

Weaving more

Cash into

Grey washed

Shadows

Caste into

Dystopic

Days of

Lively terror

Coercing

More oil

Into the

Ever

Consuming

Machinery

Rusted by

Defiant salt

Yet still

Ever

Functioning

Ablism was

Only highlighted in

The way

Corporates were

Finally able to

Reimagine

Accessible    !!!

?                                                                                      WORKING FROM HOME

Conditions

As these people

ONLY for the FIRST

Time were able to

Conceive

Of Trusting

Your work

Cohort

To Do the Work — Finally conducive to Capitalism

Helping to

Facilitate their

Needs

Just like

People with

Disabilities have

Been asking

DEMANDING

For Years

Only to be

Told

NO — OVER and OVER

Viral videos

Coughing virus

Only highlighting

The severe

Class divide

Skin divide

Economic nightmare

Favouritism

A Brighton Basic

“Bored”

Tried just

SO SO

Many

Hobbies

“Hey Susan, it’s just so hard hey, all this time with Harold is driving me up the walls HAHA y’know? Honestly gagging to get my nails done and my roots touched up —”

“—Oh don’t even start me Robyn! My hubby has hardly been leaving his personal office — talk about MAN CAVE right hahaha. Kids are hardly talking to me either hahah but I’m really enjoying this chance to learn something new like punch needling. It’s nice to have everyone around while keeping busy.”

“Su! You go girlfriend! Talk about FEMALE POWER! HERSTORY! Yes QUEEN! My daughter, Elizabeth, has introduced me to this show and gosh, it is, SO, fun. She’s been calling me a fag hag whatever that means since I’ve enjoyed it so much. It is about those drag queens, but you know, they’re all actually really talented? I had no idea. Apparently this show is a big deal!”

“Is that right Robyn? Well gee it sure does sound… interesting that’s for sure! Haha!” *sips 12pm Chardonnay* “Its been a great excuse to not go out this winter am I right? I mean over the quiet dinners at mine there’s been murmurs of this being a shared TRAUMA! Talk about relatable am I right?? It’s honestly just NOTHING like we’ve ever imagined; once every 100 years they say”

cogs that are oiled and

tired

continue to spin and

tesselate with their fellow cogs because

it is part of a machine that

enjoys to

run

smoothly

providing that all the other

wheels

are doing the same

otherwise it would be

indignant but

still too tired to

push back or

say

anything

because if its

always tired then

it can never

muster up the courage

or potential to

say NO WAY

as it is all

part of a

group project

First pandemic?

Whats that?

“Epidemic”? Oh uh okay

Y’reckon?

Bloody doubt

That aye

Y’don’t think—

Y’can’t think

About any                   others?

Mmm weird

Do you not

Remember

Coz you

Ignored it?

Didn’t happen

Or affect you?

Do you not

R E M E M B E R

The beginning

Of the end?

The apocalypse?

—No?

When the

Scurvy ridden

Soap scum

Swept up on the

Shore?

Bloody

Brought over

Barrels of

Bodies

Burdened

Burnt diseases & VIRUS

Barren blow OUT

Fucking

Flogs

Fuck the lot of ya

Faking us out

Fully reckon ur

Full of shit

Flaking on ya memory

~~~

Hibernating

Floating gentle

In a warm

Safe cave

Fuzzy hearing

Filled with bears

And cubs

Sweet smell

Slow blink

Huffing leather

Polish

Smells like

Home

Sweat rolling

Down

Just like

Molly

Dances

~~~

Not too far from convenient to forget how AIDS stole a generation of Queer Elders from us,

I say Elders because I wanna remember them getting old,

Happy with their partners,

Literal Legends,

Golden pews,

Embedded with love,

While all these heterosexuals chose to ignore,

Only kicking a fuss when it began to infiltrate their white fantasy,

I’m pissed off to high heavens where I can kiss these Elders on the cheek,

Only to launch myself back down to verbally kick the shit out of your colonial imaginary,

Wearing a superman suit as I am superb in every facet of the meaning,

More so than these fluffy chickens can even conceive,

I do not wish to be perceived by you assholes,

I’m wearing a mask with my supersuit that’s not for an aesthetic purposes but to keep the ongoing pandemic of the colonialism that you gammon cunts brought over forcing us to live out this murderous nightmare that suffocates us

(but also you‘re suffocating too ya dumb dawgs? Can you not taste the bad air?)

Deeply bored of your ignorance

We’re out here trying to save lives with our words

Our hands, our bodies,

While you boot lickers are making us taste

The vegan pleather and imported soil

From the roof of our mouths and houses

To our oesophagus where acid surges to fight back

No more being exhausted from being underpaid forced to educate you self righteous idiots

These people that continue to be stolen from AIDS

is direct blood on your hands and

these were all young people once and

despite this they are old to me and

Its more than insulting

To insinuate that their lives weren’t

Stolen from a pandemic

An epidemic

A virus—

And so many of you were alive for it

So fuck you for forgetting

And the stigma

Don’t think that we haven’t

Forgotten the shame you laid on

Thick—

AIDS is not taboo because you say so

Only taboo to you due to your guilt

Self indulgent forgetful GUILT

Shame on you

No. We’re not together. Never was. Never will be.