Let It Go

Let It Go was written for the Minneapolis version of the AIDS Quilt Songbook 1992, originally conceived by New York-based singer William Parker and locally organized by Marsha Hunter and Brian Kent.

LET IT GO

let it go
it’s only the body
in vulnerable flower
only beauty
let it go

it’s only mean measurable truth
and scant that we can know
let certainties dissolve
let limits go

it’s only childish affectation
what we called noble pride
burn all those callow hero-books
and let the great tales fade

let music deafen us
and keep us numb
on a solitary note
as we stumble to our dim partner’s
lead, and dance ourselves to death

let go
this thin
vibrating dust

let magic all dissolve

–Michael Estok, from A Plague Year Journal,
published in 1989 by Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Text used with permission from the publisher.