Spokenword poem by Michael “Miss Mikey” Lamb (Performed Live in 2018)
I got classmates in caskets
Folks steady askin’
“What happened”?
I remained silent.
Quiet.
“Why I ain’t die yet”?
I got classmates in caskets
Folks steady askin’
“What happened”?
September 19th, 2014
The light was seen by my homie
An explanation is the least that he owes me.
I got classmates in caskets
Folks steady askin’
“What happened”?
December 27th, 2016
He asked me
While on oxygen
Cause he couldn’t breathe,
“Mikey, do you know hard it is to tell someone you’re living with HIV”?
Like we weren’t taking the same medicine.
Yet again
I got classmates in caskets
Folks steady askin’
“What happened”?
July 31st, 2018
I touched my third white casket
Holding a black body
“God I’m sorry”
But why this keep happening to me?
Cause folks steady askin’
“What happened to your friend”?
Stigma. Scared them to the grave.
Stigma. Killed my friends.
Stigma. Silenced my friends.
A diagnosis that’s deadly
Gets little credit for the dead see,
Stigma. Kept the pills in the bottle
While AIDS ran full throttle.
Can’t even answer
What folks steady askin’
“What happened”?
Why I got so many classmates in caskets?
I stayed silent.
Quiet.
I’m dead now
Cause silence equals death.
