Darren and the Machine

The Impact of Aids on the Artistic Community

Torso Gaddi, Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze

Alexander McQueen.

Adrift in the liberating, late light of August, delicate, frivolous, they make their way to my front porch and flutter near the glassed-in bulb, translucent as a thought suddenly wondered aloud, illumining the air that’s thick with honeysuckle and dusk. You and I are doing our best at conversation, keeping it light, steering clear of what we’d like to say. You leave, and the night becomes cluttered with moths, some tattered, their dumbly curious filaments startling against my cheek. How quickly, instinctively, I brush them away. Dazed, they cling to the outer darkness like pale reminders of ourselves. Others seem to want so desperately to get inside. Months later, I’ll find the woolens, snug in their resting places, full of missing pieces.