On PrEP or on Prayer [“when i say pre-exposure prophylaxis”]

when i say pre-exposure prophylaxis you think easy fix. greek in origin. an act of guarding. east of here a small temple. inside parishioners strip nude as armless statues, their stone genitals hardening under a chemist’s glare. the garden out front fecund & tended. the garden inside bare. when i say tenofovir disoproxil you think chemical names. saint names. names without origin. an unpronounceable string of letters. the generic names of petty angels. the drug’s molecular makeup applied in & around the eyes & lips. the names of viruses & blind trials. the kept-vial of love. the unknowable side effects of blood. when i say oral emtricitabine you think once a day swallow a small sun & all hymn in you comes undone the way a lit match deads the smell of a public bathroom when i say nucleotide analog reverse transcriptase inhibitor you think thirsty epidemic you push the blue pill through its foil you know each new medicine trails our dead behind it like wedding cans listen you can hear them now can’t you?