You Don't Know Where They've Been

22-11-2006

To celebrate their 40th birthday, Brook in Birmingham which hasgiven advice on sex and relationships to more than 2 million people has commissioned a series of poems. The Stirrer is running them all this week, and here's today's offering from Clare Hill.

Gary tells her he is okay,

he's had a vasectomy

and he gives blood regularly,

so they can go bareback,

it feels more natural that way.

Laura obliges and opens up,

crying in the waiting room later,

passing time, reading out-of-date

magazines and panicking

that she might be pregnant,

and her Dad is going to kill her.

Donna says she is okay,

she's on the pill and it's been

a long time since her last fuck,

she's not infected with anything

but lust for you, Bay-bee.

Ben can't believe his luck

he's fancied her for ages,

he can't think of safety while

the slippery walls of her cave

are sucking him into oblivion.

Simon and Mark are okay,

they say, only mates,

having a laugh that night,

a bit drunk, it's not like

they did anything wrong,

Right?

Of course they're not gay,

lady killers, the pair of them,

on the pull tonight to prove it,

dance with a pair of right goers,

then give them false numbers.

Johnny is lonely, he used to

be one of a pack, now he lies

forgotten,

past his sell-by-date,

in a dusty bathroom cabinet.

He always wanted to be

a superhero, to slay chlamydia

and fight the advancing hordes

of gonorrhoea and herpes.

But he could only watch,

a mute witness to the reckless

mingling of bodily fluids, and cower

when he saw HIV stalking its prey,

powerless to save those who

would not accept his protection.

Gary

Laura

Donna

Ben

Simon

Mark

R.I.P

© Clare Hill 2006

For more information about Clare check out her website www.clare-hill.co.uk