A Poem about the effects of AIDS on a family

Audio Poem
written and read by
FA Jones;
dedicated to the Wilbert Jones, Jr., deceased brother.
--I am never more than you, and you are never less than me.--

It was the fire and smoke of his bravado,
That allowed him to storm in
And hold court of his audience.
But that feigned bravado
Could not hold back the wind.

For as a chilly north wind creeps across a hot
Summer day, this phantom
Rushed in, and through his house,
Laying waste the softness of his union and
The tender branch arising from their bed.

It didn't regard his bravado,
Which we all knew masked his fears.
But quickly, as a stealthy soldier on a mission,
It smothered his fire and stilled his storm--
Vanquishing his hopes, it struck down a life, cold.

This wind reduced to rubble his once disarming smile
Wrenched his strong, black comeliness
And caused a rumble that shook his being
And a fire that caused a boiling in his blood.

A rapier was this chilly north wind,
Slashing, turning his insides out.
And after taking...his breath away,
It would leave, but only then,
From its mean trashing floors--
Angry still at its quick dance to death--
Leaving tracks of ulcerated sores.

How puny and stark the brown box of ashes is
Hardly a fitting sum of him--
Alone, silent, without his fire.

....
How soft a south wind is
How easily it can now blow him... away....

(c) Copyright 2001