AFFECTED DECENDANTS


Let me mention some names I cried over from AIDS to abstention
I cried hard deep tears
Not for HIV but for the Memories
Of lost greatness of names still unknown to a host of
Affected Descendants
Whom I represent
James Baldwin 1987, with novels in playwright and poem, setting on a cloud
Welcoming Max Robinson on December 20, 1988,
Carrying his tapes from ABC World News Tonight
The Journalist born in 39 on that HIV climb
First Black full time Anchorman
And I am your affected Descendent
On Drugs they did not make, you could not take
I am your Descendant
There rises Alvin Ailey from January 5, 1931 to December 1, 1989
Where is his crime?
Learning from Katherine Dunham each step up his endless frame
That still claimed him more than his name but his dance, his dance
I am his Affected Descendant
Marlin Riggs 1957 to 1994
Graduated from Harvard, Magda Cum Laude
His Emmy in 93, Peabody in 91
The filmmaker acting in a new play this day
Was sent on his way
In honor of him and more
I am his affected Descendant
NKOSI Johnson Ascended in 01 at the age of twelve
From then, the living hell of South Africa
They called him the face of HIV
But he is more than that to me
I just wish you could see
I am his affected Descendant
Jerry Smith 1986
Tight end NFL Redskins
Simon NIKOLI 1998
The great GLTB activist from South Africa
Gibson Kente in 2004
And there are more, and there are more
Kente the father of Black Theater in Soweto
My Brother EZAY-E to me straight out of Compton in 1995
Ganster RAP and NWA
Walk in his shadow this day
I am the descendent connected by virus

To a host of history’s meanest most fierce warriors
I want no more births from this disease
By my account to fall in ascension lane
What ever be their name
For everything we hold dear and near bring forth a generation by education
And affected not infected generation
Why did Arthur Ashe rise in 1993, three grand slam titles, Davis cup and graduate of UCLA
His transfusion could not keep the AIDS away
Doctor Isabello Reyes is still taking care of me
And Derrick Anderson a father a brother
Halsey Wood
All these men of African Decent
Lent me strength in their assent
And all the angles of AIDS in there Lament
Affected Descendants
To Heaven Went.
f.
2009