AIDS Walk 2005

We gathered by the water
by the thousands
dancing in the sun and glitter
while freighters in the distance
braved the depths, magnificent ships!,
and flags and spinnakers rippled
in the harbor wind! The voices
from the main stage swirled around us
like carnival rides, there was so much joy
and sadness in our hearts!
Politicians declared their fortitude
and rallied around rainbow t-shirts
with pleas for compassion.
Health care workers and love-scarred partners
prayed for precious love and defiant justice,
they prayed for mercy and thanked those
thousands before them vibrating in
sun-drenched sweat, their heart drums pounding,
the children rallied and thrilled by blood
and words and music and signs that
their world was our world,
and waves swept the shore clean in pulses
that washed over the crowd
and we were cleansed by the fury
of our fierce love. And that is when
the stage emptied except for the three
cages and three white doves
stared out on the crowd
and one by one they were released,
the first flew out over our heads, its wings
fluttering in a rush
as if from a magician's hat
and then slowly circled us.
The second joined her and the two
swept the sky in perfect arcs,
circling the water as if this
were the eternal moment, the sacred poem,
the great life prayer, while the third
stood on the edge and waited, as if
she were afraid to brave the depths,
she could not dare the blue gulf.
Her friends circled wider and soared
higher until they disappeared.
We waited for the music and the drums,
the beginning, suspended in hope
when a burst of white spilled over us
in a gasp, sweeping down to the third cage
and the last dove rose and followed,
followed as they flew as one soul,
white spirits riding the endless blue
until we could see them no more,
and as the the drums and music swelled,
we walked, together, nameless and one,
following, shoulder to shoulder,
we hoped, forever.