I’ve been building anyway. Teaching, directing, writing in the margins of exhaustion, and turning rejection into rehearsal. I say yes to the long road because I believe in the work more than I believe in the no’s. I’m still looking for the publishing house that feels like home, the theater that recognizes itself inside my stories, and the studio that honors the in-between, but until then, I keep making. I keep pressing. I keep loving the work out loud.
Excerpts from Lester Mayers’ latest book, Tomorrow 12:01: A Collection of Docu-Poems Celebrating the Stories of Those Affected by HIV
“A MOTHER'S LOVE” - VINCENT PT 3.
MOTHER:
you got Aids now/
SON:
I have HIV, not AIDS.
MOTHER:
Same thang/
now you can get right
with the lord
find a wife
you know what you was getting into
when you decided to go out there & be gay
i told you
it was only a matter of time
before the flames catches up to you.
-
it's time to love god!
SON:
I love god & god loves me mama or else I wouldn’t be here.
MOTHER:
Can’t serve two masters at one time/
SON:
Which is why I’m choosing to believe in his love rather than yours.
-
Goodbye mama.
MOTHER:
I’ll see you at your funeral, son.
“I HAVE FAITH.” - VINCE. PT4. GLASSHOUSE.
at the funeral
she kissed him
with an obituary held
between her lips & his cheek
she said
i don't know if he clean yet.
they said
he dead.
she said
could be dead & dirty.
they said
but he’s your son …
dirty or not
he’s yours!
she said
he was my son
god saw fit & i don’t question it!
they said
huh?
sister, ain’t you got no tears?
she said
i cried 'em all
16 years ago at 1:11 am
when he was born
-
cradle to the grave
i've done my job!
they paused & said
but he’s not in the grave yet
she said
be ‘bout just the same to me
as she walked off
& out of the church
& into her bed
with a married man
who preaches every sunday at the 3rd avenue baptist church.
“WHEN SOMEONE SHOWS YOU
WHO THEY ARE
BELIEVE THEM
THE FIRST TIME….”
- MAYA ANGELOU.
when i tried to go through his phone
he convinced me that it was about
privacy issues
& i believed him.
when i asked where he was going
he convinced me that it was about
control issues
& i believed him.
when i demanded he put on a condom
he convinced me that it was about
trust issues
& i believed him.
when i said something doesn’t feel right
he convinced me that it might be a
chemical imbalance
& i believed him.
when i said the nurse called
he convinced me that it was about
over thinkin’
& i believed him.
i believed everything he told me
but not what he showed me.
Lester Eugene Mayers is a Brooklyn native, multidisciplinary artist, and educator whose work lives at the intersection of poetry, performance, and documentary storytelling. He is a Visiting Professor of Theatre at Ramapo College and has also taught at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. An MFA graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Mayers is a director, playwright, performance artist, and choreographer whose work has been featured in theaters, festivals, and literary spaces across the country. His recent projects blend docu-poetry, movement, and archival research to examine memory, masculinity, and inherited silence.