lcd afterlife

fb notifies me to write on yr timeline for yr birthday                            i click yr profile

                                                                                             framed by the legacy banner with “comfort”

                                                      & “celebration” & relive hw i heard u overdosed

thru gay grape vine                   midnight sexts                          coffee talk

officially                                                                                                       obit. said u died at peace

i scroll acronyms exclamations old pics a vid. of abbey lincoln singing                      throw it away

             & each dec. we vouch for abbey

                          you can never lose a thing if it belongs to you                                 & look at u!

                                                     in the palms of our hand!                                  after all this time

i forget                           among friends                        u still                                exist

so i plaster up lines from paris is burning                 fill the algorithm w/ what i remember

             not booze         not T                               & w/ every birthday

                                                     ur profile fills out more             so I go all in

searching the cloud for our only pic together       the one we took post-yoga        pre-btm-less pita

             & post the sweat-soaked selfie

the message-posted notification drips

             over the surface of the shape u have now                    these bright bitter binaries eliding

                                                     hw u killed that yellow black-crotched unitard

& hw we didn’t lose u babe                                y’r right here

                                                                                                                                   moisturized & well-lit