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There is so much I can say about/in this poem—loss, memory, desire, grief, the struggle—every once in awhile, usually one in each collection, I come up with a good, signature “protest poem” my queer activist, liberationist intact. I place protest poem here in quotes, because they also tend to be elegies (a statement in and of itself). Memorials are a strong form of protest. That being said, I will share a couple of stories around this one for artist David Wojnarowicz.

I am asked by the family to play “minister” at gifted artist and friend Robert Flack‘s memorial. I select and read this passage from Wojnarowicz’s searing, essential memoir, Close to the Knives:

Why does this one die and that one not? What does all this mean? How do…