Perspective

An AIDS Victim
As written by the author while in Ethiopia.


In a shack we saw him lying

As others before, surely dying.

For him any tears or crying?

Disease had been gripping,

Certain death now was nipping.

Life from him was slipping.

The look with hollow eye

On the mat where he lie,

Waiting for his hour to die.

We judge him the guilty one,

He had his day or two of fun.

And now his course has run.

But what about his wife?

Gone now, the precious life,

To think, he caused the strife.

Death, snatch him from the bed.

Surely as the one he’d wed.

For like her, he’ll soon be dead.

Question asks: “what to do?”

Answer responds: “who, and whom?”

Echo replies: “who but you?”


Postscript

An AIDS Victim was authored by a long-time friend of HOPE and the poor, after a journey into the slums of Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.

"We saw the dying man. Then we visited the young dying mother, baby, and grandmother," recalls the author. "It was during the second visit that the doctor from England became so emotional and distraught that she left the house. I soon followed and met with her by the car as she wept." Later that day, the author penned the poem.