2024_5_14 Plague Poem
when the news said our blood
was not safe to donate
i exhaled a years held breath
that something wasn’t invisible
that some scientist
(the closest thing I grew up with to a god)
knew our suffering was not imagined
my face was wet as I felt
my queer ancestors hold me
I’ve lived with stigma and actively fought it for decades.
I know its horrors, and I would rather live with more stigma,
than live with the deep-dyed doubt that my illness isn’t real.
News source: https://thesicktimes.org/2024/05/14/should-people-with-long-covid-be-donating-blood/
Plague Poems: https://librarianshipwreck.wordpress.com/plague-poems/