Aids. How it has spread. When I was six I had no idea what it meant. And now it has become an everyday term. I wonder what my children will think of the word.
What does Aids mean to me everyday?
Well in my work as a counsellor at a university of technology I hear stories of children growing up with the scary relaity of having to look after their sick parents. Of boyfriends dying and leaving their girlfriends with a terrible reminder of the relationship. Of amazingly beautiful women living with the disease for years and having boyfriends and dreams of white wedding gowns and laughing kids one day. Of paranoia over burst condoms and drunk one night stands. Of children being looked after by their grandparents in rural areas while their parents fork out a living in cities. Of clinics with pre and post test counselling services that are neglected by those in denial.
When i wrote this poem i was livid, I had become too emotionally involved with my clients, and someone rightly criticised it as playing right into moralistic stereotypical views of Aids. I admit, it does. But this has been my experience with the disease. Perhaps you have had others, more enlightening?
The Soft Embrace of Forever
1 year ago
3 shared ideas:
Aids is our reality...and like terrorism, many of us live in denial. Everyone thinks they're exempt from it. I guess people do that because they just dont have the emotional capacities to deal with it up front. Or maybe they truely believe that it wont happen to them?
The tragedy is that being the unequal society we are, it's easy to insulate ourselves against the reality of Aids, our only experience of it, superficial.
insightful; honest; poignant
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