David Bolen, d. 1995. RIP for World AIDS Day 2011

WORLD AIDS DAY - DAVID BOLEN R.I.P.

David Bolen was by far the closest person of the over sixty people I have known killed by this disease. Although I was close to David, in so far as anybody could be - for he was always a lonely man, I did not know he wrote poetry. He did, in fact he wrote a lot of of it, arranged in four specific collections. This is a poem, written by David, which we read at his memorial held in New York on December 15th 1995.

Poem for My Funeral
(written January 29, 1993)

by
David P. Bolen
Born May 3, 1964
Died November 25, 1995

Cover the lawn with gray ashes
No daisies to push up, not I
No worms to feed, not I
Cover the lawn with gray ashes
and the pebbles of tooth and bone
No mark have I left, no marker, not I
No property do I own
No plot, not I
So cover the lawn with my gray ashes
And the pebbles of my teeth and bones
No violets will this May rose grow, not I
And when the lawn is covered with my ashes of blue and gray
And the pebbles of my teeth and bones
Then pop the corks
And drink deeply of fine champagne
Think of me and be glad
That I was let to see the wonders of the world
The lawn, the sky, flowering trees
The beauty of nature
And of man made things