This paper will examine Tim Dlugos' autobiographical AIDS poem, 'DOA', as a case study to interrogate Christian theology's attention to failure, death, and mourning. The poet employs the typical camp style of the New York School (associated with figures like Frank O'Hara and John Ashberry) to bring both clarity and mystery to the reality of his own imminent and inevitable death. What practices and models of mourning does this poem offer to Christian theology? Drawing on the work of Gillian Rose on mourning and representation, and Judith Butler's engagement with the question of whose lives are grievable, this paper will explore the ways in which poetry can 'succeed' where prose cannot, and how in its failure to represent clearly or directly, the poem performs a kind of failing that directs the reader to an openness to the entanglement of life and death that is fundamental to the work of mourning. The poem seamlessly weaves together 1950s film noir, the negotiation of AIDS trauma, and scenes from ordinary life to construct an image of what it might mean to live and love otherwise, within and against layers of failure (personal, social, and political).