I FAILED the TEST (YAAAYY!!) + My New Profile Pic....

So, I was asked to do a set of Poetry for this event in town every year out in the fair-grounds. It’s a local non-profit organization in town that offers free stuff to the public: Haircuts, help with birth certificates, food-assistance, apartment applications, etc.

The woman who asked me to perform had heard my name buzzing on campus a lot and eventually found me on Facebook. After exchanging info, the rest was history.

While there, they had a Free HIV-Testing booth set up. What struck me was that of the 50+ booths that were there, this was the only one that had NO LINE!!

Now, I graduated back in 2008 from High School but since then, I know for a fact that at least 4 of the people I “walked” with have contracted HIV. And the sad thing is that these 4 were not even the most promiscuous of us! These were the ones of whom only had 2 or 3 sexual partners in their life, hands down.

THAT is an alarming fact: it only takes ONE slip-up to catch it (or any other STD).

This was running through my mind as I walked on stage. Whenever I get in front of the Mic, I take a deep breath, close my eyes, say a light-speed fast prayer (Jesus wept) , and then do my thing. But when I opened my eyes, the HIV Booth was still in my line of sight.

So instead of jumping into my first piece, I said “I’m not going to do ANYTHING until I see at least 10 people in the HIV-Testing Site”. (Or something like that, can’t remember it verbatim).

And nobody moved! I don’t know if they thought I was playing or stalling because I was nervous or something like that. People were looking at me like ???? And even my friends were like????

For like 2 whole minutes, it was just dead air. Hell, I was even shocked at what I said. Because as soon as I said that, I had a flashback of the last few sexual adventures I’ve had within the past 2 years alone.

Though I have a strict “No Glove, No Love” policy, I can recall on a few occasions where I didn’t wrap-up. Although I knew my partners very well, I don’t know if they had been as safe as me with their partners, you know?

And all that “he/she doesn’t look like a HIV+ person” is absolute tomfoolery. How the hell is an HIV+ person supposed to “look like”?

Emaciated, sunken-in face, sickly-looking and clinging to dear life? NO! In fact, the woman who was handing out the free condoms at the booth was HIV+ and she looked like a million-fucking-dollars!

…So when nobody moved, I walked off stage and went straight over to the booth, gave her all of my info, and got tested right there! The woman told me I was very brave for what I just did.

I told her it’s not that I’m brave at all—I’m just afraid of what I don’t know.

By the time she was done drawing my blood, like 20 people were in line—including the woman who asked me to come to this shindig in the first place!

After that, the show went off without a hitch! I told everyone with their band-aids on (from getting their blood drawn) to come up on stage with me as I did my last poem.

It was such a good turnout!

It was a "Rapid Test" where the results came within like 30 minutes. Turns out: I'M NEGATIVE! YAAAYY!!! (I was scared as FUCK though, no lie)... 

SO, I URGE ALL OF MY READERS TO GET TESTED. NOT ONLY BECAUSE IT’S SUPER-DUPER-COOL (ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT), BUT BECAUSE IT HELPS PREVENT ANY FURTHER SPREAD OF THE DISEASE AND IF NOTHING ELSE—RAISES AWARENESS.

AND IF YOU DON’T WANT TO GET TESTED, AT LEAST USE A CONDOM. I CAN NOT STRESS THAT ENOUGH. UNLESS YOU AND YOUR PARTNER HAVE BEEN TESTED TOGETHER AND YOU’RE BOTH NEGATIVE, IT’S THE SAFEST WAY TO PREVENT ANY STD (OTHER THAN ABSTINENCE).

Put it to you like this: if you wanna have a wang-dang-doodle with this guy below, you have to wrap it up! And thank God he has a golden wrapper! ;) 

…and I still love ya’! J

P.S. for all those who ever lost someone they love, my gift to you: R. Kelly – I wish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3DXihgzC0U

Enjoy the pics!

I think I’m gonna continue doing the Gay 101 posts! It was fun and I realized that I know a lot more about the Gay Lifestyle than I let on, so… What is knowledge if you can’t share it, right?

One more thing! Long story short: this one guy I used to go to Elementary School with, right? Well, we hadn't seen eachother since. But, I found out he works at this Family Dollar around the corner from my house and let me just say: DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! He was ugly as FUCK even back in like 7th/8th grade when I'd see him at basketball games and stuff, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if this bitch isn't all KINDS OF PHINE now! 

So I said all that to say: I will be purchasing all my items at Family Dollar on Cable St. from now on! ;) 

And yes, the new default pic is of ME! I took it when I was in the living room, feeling myself. So... 

--Cogito capricornaries@hotmail.com