The Quilt Project–dVerse Poetics

The Quilt Project

Each patch a life,
crafted with love,
clothed in pain,
cloaked in loss.

Tom and Kevin,
Jeff and Diane:
this virus does not
discriminate, like us,

Like those unable
to see the person
stitched in each square,
remembered

for gifts they gave.
Judge not the fabric
of these young lives
lost too soon.

Acres upon acres
of color, shape, texture,
bound as one
in a common shroud.

At the Washington Mall

In the late 1980’s to early 1990’s I worked as a nurse in San Francisco caring for AIDS patients and managing an AIDS Unit at Mt.Zion/UCSF Medical Center. The epidemic was in it’s early stages and the medical community still didn’t understand it well. Treatment options were limited and death was certain. During these few years, I learned to look beyond the stigma of the disease as I got to know my patients as persons. Mostly younger gay males, yes, but not exclusively. There was a nurse who acquired HIV from a blood transfusion, women who got the disease from unfaithful husbands and IV drug abusers. My husband and I lost a friend, Tom–a man who, along with his partner, had been an usher in our wedding. Many of these victims were talented, artistic and brilliant. (Tom was a PhD who worked in vector control for the state of California.) The Quilt Project began early on in the outbreak. We hosted segments of the quilt at the hospital where I worked. David and I toured an exhibit at the Moscone Center…a huge building where rows upon row of quilts told the stories of these lives. This poem is a rough draft, but the story needs to be told.

In loving memory of Tom Mischke

Linked to dVerse Poetics which I was happy to host on the subject of quilting.