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slave ship. Its images of enslaved Africans packed like sardines is most recognizable, while the narrative description printed below it, which is just as harrowing, rarely receives the same attention.

TEXT TILES: THE NAMES
    Learn those lives touched
    No one would touch you anymore, you said
    Your friends had become afraid & could not hold you close.
    The word is not in my vocabulary
    Afraid is absent from our vocabulary
    Is fate because of fear
    We’ll never know.
    You know, don’t you,
    Even those you never knew remember you.

    We will do our best to see
    That no one will have to live without love
    Know what it is like to be shunned
    By nurses & friends, hospital employees
    Refusing to come into your room
    & when they did, they were covered in plastic gloves
    & smocks.

    Please take the pieces
    Please forgive us for getting carried away.
    We did it for two reasons—
    For all who’ve been lost
    & all who’ve lost them.
    Fathers, grandparents, sisters, brothers,
    Sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, lovers & friends
    So good.
    We could change things
    We could stop the epidemic
    We could save you
    In the end, of course, we could not
    Speak those names found by humanity.

    Now cannot put love into the past tense
    Above all, love—love very much.
    If love could cure!
    Each day slowly could not breathe.
    Life still lives.
    Our memories are you.
    Remember this loving
    Was dying.
    Distort body
    Breathing difficult
    Lonesomeness is a never-ending ache.

    We were barred from seeing
    To see to mourn
    We tried to forget.
    We just can’t let go yet
    Hang on
    Remember clearly
    The best way is with poems
    Remember
    We were beginning
    Dancing true
    New meaning
    New hope
    We have held this hope with the rest.

    We stood & did not see death.
    Do you see
    From the world to whatever awaits. ¶¶

    ¶¶ This documentary poem was made using the letters of contributors to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, each hand-sewn panel of which pays tribute to those who died from the disease. First displayed in 1987, the Quilt is now part of the National AIDS Memorial. As of 2021, it spans 1.2 million square feet & includes more than 48,000 panels. According to UNAIDS, 27.2 to 47.8 million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses globally since the start of the AIDS pandemic.

The Surveyed
    REPORT ON MIGRATION OF ROES
    Welcome, Migrants, to Panpax.
    As you are aware, Panpax, our idyllic country, has finally reopened its gates to outsiders. We’re aware that your nation Pandem, on the other hand, is a low wasteland of sickness & death, where its people are dubbed “roes” (a Pandemian derivative of “woes”). We’ve heard that in Pandem all forms of gathering are prohibited, its reclusive citizens don’t even go so far as to share the same sidewalk, let alone breathe the same air. Social-political life is quite different in Panpax & we’re aware that for this reason many of you roes have newly disembarked here seeking refuge & refuge, a road forward, you shall have. Panpax City Commissioners have conducted a series of interviews to document the unique transitional experience of Pandem refugees now living in Panpax. Our hope is that these condensed answers will help you acclimate to our abundant nation. For their privacy, the names of roe interviewees have been replaced with their respective numbers.
    Sincerely,
    Panpax President Pact
    SURVEY
    Migrants have been in their homes & met. Efforts have been made to learn why they came to Panpax & with what success they were themselves new.
    Some of the replies to questions asked are given:
    Question: What are you doing now in Panpax?
    Answers:
    1. Looking.
    Question: What have you been feeling?
    Answers:
    2. Tired.
    19. Tired.
    Question: In Pandem, what did you want?
    Answers:
    10. Change.
    20. To get away.
    Question: No. In Pandem, what did you want most?
    Answers:
    5. People.
    Question: Do you feel greater freedom & independence now in Panpax? In what ways? What can you do now that you couldn’t