Literature

The Now+then Writers were a diverse group of people living with and affected by HIV who developed, their creative writing. The writers produced short stories and poems based on their own experiences. A selection are in the Now+then booklet, which contains oral testimonies and a HIV timeline.

Now and then

Now+Then Booklet

Short Story image

Short Stories

Readings image

Readings

Now+then Poem Illustration

Poetry

 

Now+then Poem Illustration© 2014 Tom Spencer

Now and then
by Cate Jacobs

Now and then, I wonder what life would have been like, if fish had wings and could fly

up into the sky, to escape the bite of the hook.

If lilies took pollen and death back from the bees, closed their petals tight, became a bud again before sinking back through leaves and stem into earth, to become the seeds of other possibilities.

If waterfalls flowed up instead of down. If the sun turned round the moon. If egg timer sand didn’t fall and butterflies crawled back into their chrysalises to metamorphose into angels.

And you, could rise from the dead Whilst we grew backwards into children, splashing in puddles, in bright red wellies. You’d pull my pigtails and run away into a world HIV and AIDS didn’t even exist yet.

Now and then,

I wonder, what life would have been like

If……