Ann Marie
- Title
- Ann Marie
- Date
- 1991
Description:
I met Ann Marie and her partner Benjie for the first time in the late 1980s when I volunteered at the Sussex AIDS Centre & Helpline. The pair were inseparable and generally nocturnal, but sometimes they’d be seen strolling along St James’s Street making eyes turn as they passed. Benjie clearly modelled himself on Jimi Hendrix whilst Ann Marie was pure Goth with a slim figure and translucent porcelain skin. You could be sure they'd be the first at the chemist for their Methadone script.
Their basement flat on Elm Grove was an Aladdin’s cave festooned with trinkets and fabric, shrouded by curtains which rarely opened. A chaotic space which echoed their lives. It’s no secret that the pair struggled with addiction but they were devoted to each other and somehow managed to survive for a while at least.
Due to their vulnerability and poor health, Ann Marie and Benjie were rehoused in a flat on Tyson Place in Kemptown where Avee Isofa Holmes also lived at the time. She remembers Ann Marie as a ‘lovely serene quiet soul’ who was rarely seen unless she needed to borrow shampoo.
Ann Marie’s family often visited from Ireland but despaired at her circumstances and lifestyle. Her ravaged immune system struggled with injection related wounds and as a result she was plagued by infections which would eventually prove too much for her. Ann Marie died in hospital in October 1991.
Wolf Impala - a poem by Ann Marie published in the the Sussex AIDS Centre Newsletter (1991)
In the cave of my brain
where pulps a green
throbbing light
edges stretching bursting
at my lovers contact and
precious heart
in the centre gold shafts
oozing juice lubricating
my hard strong magical thoughts
idealism strikes but pain remains
in the cave of my brain
singing a sweet backward ballad
I feel as many as every
human living as mirrored
pupiled eyes stare
as the globe throws itself
smashing against my brains
walls
a fucking elegant unpolish
bang as different countrys
continents races feel the
impact of the cacophony
of billions united inside
the cave of my brain
I ache an orgasm of
love for all
Their basement flat on Elm Grove was an Aladdin’s cave festooned with trinkets and fabric, shrouded by curtains which rarely opened. A chaotic space which echoed their lives. It’s no secret that the pair struggled with addiction but they were devoted to each other and somehow managed to survive for a while at least.
Due to their vulnerability and poor health, Ann Marie and Benjie were rehoused in a flat on Tyson Place in Kemptown where Avee Isofa Holmes also lived at the time. She remembers Ann Marie as a ‘lovely serene quiet soul’ who was rarely seen unless she needed to borrow shampoo.
Ann Marie’s family often visited from Ireland but despaired at her circumstances and lifestyle. Her ravaged immune system struggled with injection related wounds and as a result she was plagued by infections which would eventually prove too much for her. Ann Marie died in hospital in October 1991.
Wolf Impala - a poem by Ann Marie published in the the Sussex AIDS Centre Newsletter (1991)
In the cave of my brain
where pulps a green
throbbing light
edges stretching bursting
at my lovers contact and
precious heart
in the centre gold shafts
oozing juice lubricating
my hard strong magical thoughts
idealism strikes but pain remains
in the cave of my brain
singing a sweet backward ballad
I feel as many as every
human living as mirrored
pupiled eyes stare
as the globe throws itself
smashing against my brains
walls
a fucking elegant unpolish
bang as different countrys
continents races feel the
impact of the cacophony
of billions united inside
the cave of my brain
I ache an orgasm of
love for all
- Subject
- AIDS
Ann Marie - 1989
Ann Marie with Avee Isofa Holmes
