Published in 1991, it is the second collection of poems by the American poet, Mark Doty, who lived through the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Holla was a Drag queen, and the first person Doty knew who died of AIDS.
According to Doty, "I was filled with rage at that ridiculous notion that we invite our own oppression as a consequence of pleasure.
Some people make friendly jokes related to Peter's passion for drag, then, "someone said that he asked for it,"[1] initiating the theme of gay men deserving death by HIV/AIDS due to their having intimate homosexual relations.
This statement triggers a series of abstract images where the speaker imagines a heaven where men lie peacefully on the grass while horses walk through an orchard.