Someone used a couple poems by Walta Borawski in a fic I read recently, so I bought one of his books used because I liked it so much. The book is called Lingering in Silk Shirts. Walta Borawski was gay and died of AIDS in 1994. His poems are usually about being gay in the '90s.



Therapy

Unravel the obsession.
Begin here: he never
encouraged me. When I
feel pain he has not
called, when I feel
jealously toward men he
may have slept with, may
be having sex with, this
has nothing to do with
him, he's never opened
that part of himself to
me. The man probably
knows nothing beyond I
am infatuated, write notes,
leave messages, get a silly
smile whenever I see him,
and suffer varying energy
levels

18 February 91



Transition in Newsweek

"If you die famous, or marry someone famous, or are born to famous parents, you might wind up in the Transition column in Newsweek magazine."

Mel Gibson died today after battling his third bout of PCP

Sylvester Stallone succumbed to pancreatitis due to the experimental drug ddI

Work on Eddie Murphy's newest film came to a halt when it was discovered amoebas were eating his corneas

Arnold Schwarzenegger's struggle with wasting syndrome has left the Republican at 80 pounds despite his $500 a day nourishment treatment

Tom Cruise has been unable to eat solid food for four months because of a pesky candida of the throat

Larry Bird's neuropathy has ended every sport lover's delight at seeing such a tall white man run around in little shorts

Tom Selleck's toxoplasmosis and lymphoma have made insurance on his new film with Goldie Hawn unlikely, although Ms. Hawn in a rare interview said that after seeing Kurt Russell tied to his bed in a diaper she can handle anything.

Matthew Modine's short struggle against progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy ended today. Fortunately he was blind and demented and did not know he wouldn't live to skip rope in a jock strap in Vision Quest II, which now goes to Matt Dillon if the CD4 trial keeps him fit

Mr. Rogers has killed himself after severe frustration at being unable to figure out what plastic discs had to do with the slit holes on his cardigan sweater

Pee Wee Herman died today of toxic shock after flying to China on his special bike to try the cucumber. Before leaving the Playhouse he told the kids his AZT would keep him safe until the cure. CURE!! shouted the flowers and Globie the talking globe. CURE!! shouted Chairie the chair, who would miss Pee Wee's little butt. CURE!! shouted Jombie the Genie, whose dementia had made him lose touch with his powers. CURE!! shouted Mrs. Renee, who was tired of having no gay male friends and never even got out of her quilted housecoat anymore. CURE!! shouted the King of Cartoons and absolutely everyone but Cowboy Curtis, dead of massive internal KS. CURE!! was the secret word that day

23-24 May 1990