As you know, the AIDS plague has hit Provincetown a lot--
hit the gay community there a lot.
So here's one having somewhat to do with that.
It's called, "A Provincetown Totentanz"--
death dance.
"A Provincetown Totentanz."
"It's obscene the way you have a girl's voice and flirtatious
manner in a broken down old body.
When you and I stand together on canes at cocktail parties,
you say, let's kiss.
Nobody kisses anymore.
Come on.
Kiss me.
I'll give you AIDS.
Remembering how you felt when you were 50,
I could get a hard on if I could get a hard on.
So I send you off to get another zombie.
Then, we can dance together later--
drunk, six-legged, bones to bones, we'll knock em dead.
You, the ancient flapper, me who looks like death,
as figures in the comic strip, The Plague Years.
For these kids who never knew what
it was like to kiss everybody at the party,
regardless of the sex."