OUTLIVING MICHAEL

Reigns remembers a late friend in this bittersweet poetry collection.

“I’ve outlived so many / of the men in my life,” the author writes. “The most painful has always been, / will always be, outliving Michael.” The book opens with an image of Michael as a Studio 54 bottle boy, “strawberry-haired, sweating, in / a white T-shirt, bar rag in his / low-slung jeans” on the dance floor. Readers learn that Michael, a quick-witted travel agent, was a deeply empathetic man, “a connoisseur of / crass and camp” in the drag community, and that he had a penchant for Judge Judy. The poems bounce around in time, evoking memories of Michael when he was “energetic, alive, and we / felt like there was nothing but time,” as well as after “The virus had crept in, betrayed his body. / robbed him of his looks, / held hope hostage, / murdered his lover, / absconded with his future.” HIV/AIDS haunts many other poems here as it claims friends and lovers alike. Reigns also shares turning points in his own sexual identity journey and his experiences with aging, survivor’s guilt, and grief as he continues “diving and forging into the past, / trying to bring every scrap of Michael / back to the surface.” The author paints a vivid, loving portrait of Michael in this heartbreaking and subtly humorous poetry collection. The vignettes are intimate and endearing; after experiencing hair loss, Michael remarked to a young neighbor with cancer, “Looks like we go to the same barber.” The poet effectively conveys youth through a mature vantage point in lines like, “We were young, tough, defiant, laughing / in the face of death that was laughing back at us.” The book’s only flaw is its brevity; readers will want more time with the charming, enigmatic Michael, as well as with the author, whose backstory is hinted at but not fully fleshed out.

A tender and touching elegy that ends too soon.