They don’t pay me to care
what goes on in each room, so
I don’t know if it was true:

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF AIDS!

I just know it came off the mirror
pretty easy with lemon Pledge
(secret weapon—ask anyone),

which is good, because I have
wrist problems, shoulder trouble,
a bad back. We all do. So I looked

for a tip. There wasn’t one—just
bottles and shoes, maybe some
coke in front of the clock radio.

I cleaned everything up.
I changed the sheets.
I closed the door—

everything ready for the next
guest to take a nap or make love
or get AIDS. Like I said before:

They don’t pay me to care.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
AIDS Mary (1994 version)