I AM AIDS,... Poetry

Something that really got stuck in my brain after having read this piece of poetry by Nomvula Magedi from South Africa.

I AM AIDS

I claim the lives of your people
I snatch their dreams, hopes and aspirations
I take away the strength of the community by destroying young men
I take away the backbone of your community by destroying young women I enter subtly, and I am powerful enough to annihilate your entire nation
I AM AIDS

I am able to do what slavery could not do,
What the holocaust could not do,
What Apartheid could not do,
What substandard housing and belittling classism could not do
I AM AIDS

I have deceived you into thinking
I am a homosexual disease
A drug addicts' disease
An inner City disease
I have deceived you to think I only affect "those" persons who do bad things:
Things much worse than YOU would ever consider doing.
I AM AIDS

The time has come for me to unleash my fury, my consuming passion,
My insurmountable power.
The time has come for me to not only affect "those" people
But, by the end of the century, I will have imparted the lives Even of those who are pristine, sanctimonious and judgemental.
I will have imparted those who worship the living God (so many claims)
But have no compassion for others.
I AM AIDS

I am no respecter of person
I accept actors, actresses, singers, pimps, prostitutes, businessmen, businesswomen,
And everyday people like you.
I am an equal opportunity destroyer; I'll take elderly people, middle-aged people,
Teenagers and even infants before they utter their first words.
I AM AIDS

Please continue to deny I exist
(Do not educate your children about me-I'll introduce myself to them)
Please continue to pretend I can't affect you (I affect only "those" people and not you)
Please continue to turn your head as I destroy present generations
I detrimentally affect generations yet unborn.
That makes it so much easier for me to kill
Those you know
Those you love
And eventually …you!!!

read Nomvula Magedi's "Another Success Story" on http://www.fieldband.org.za/nomvula.htm

http://www.stopaidsnow.nl/