Case Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues
by Julene Tripp Weaver
Finishing Line Press, 2007
Reviewed by Jen Garfield

With this collection, Julene Tripp Weaver, an HIV/AIDS case manager in Seattle, attempts to cross the clinical line between caseworker and client, though it’s unclear if this is an act of deep respect or public therapy. Claiming HIV is “the ultimate lover,” the poems are populated with the usual suspects: the hippie who lost her way, the jailbird heroin addict, the methadone wanderer, and of course the sociopath. Weaver holds the hand of Rick, a man whose partner died before him, and tells him she loves him, though the professional restraint she must uphold as she follows “the rules” is often more heartbreaking than her attempts to humanize the sick and dying. Few authentic moments shine, though the ones that do, surface when Weaver acknowledges the ways institutions and individuals have failed to safeguard the most vulnerable. She writes:

We are born alone.

We die alone.

 

And that is the sad truth of how

we fail each other. . .

 

You are not family

nor lover.

 

You are client.

 

I am professional

with boundaries

that you and I trip over

deep in this heart .

The most moving, and possibly redeeming, of these poems is “Special Order,” in which Weaver counsels a dying patient on his end-of-life arrangements: the living will, the power of attorney, and “what it is you want to eat before you die,” so that she’ll have time to put in a special order. This is the deeply humanizing moment the collection seeks, where the line between caseworker and client blur, where Weaver imagines she would want a large strawberry milkshake as her last meal.

While these poems may not be saying anything new, they bear witness to the complex emotional web of those working on the frontlines to combat AIDS, poverty and addiction. They remind us of one of our most fundamental questions: How does anyone, sick or not, survive the loneliness and distance?

Finishing Line Press can be found on the web at http://www.finishinglinepress.com/.

Jen Garfield is the poetry editor for Prick of the Spindle. Her poetry has appeared in  numerous journals and recently, she was the recipient of a 2007 Illinois Arts Council Literary Award. Her chapbook, Excuses for Happiness, is forthcoming from Pudding House Press.  This week, she likes Greek mythology, advice columns, and shih tzus. 

© 2007 prickofthespindle.com