AIDS BABY

If I were different

I would be another child,

Who would react warmly when my mother smiled.

Maybe someone would hold me, speak in a loving tone,

Maybe then my parents would have taken me home.

I saw her face once,

but the glass frame between us might just as well

have been a brick wall

I lifted my hand

In my incoherent language I started to call.

She winced, my love denied.

I let my hand fall to my side.

She walked away, I do not know her name,

She left me,

a symbol of her shame.

In my infant's body an adult sickness does rage,

it tears throughout my body,

it takes no heed of my age.

I fear the darkness,

even in the light

I feel lonely,

too weak to face this fight.

I do not blame anybody,

but I need to know:

is this my fault?

But things are as they are

I'm not just another child

I'm this disease's victim.

Without cause, without trial.

I lie in this cot

And wait for someone to understand

It's not medicine I want,

I just need someone to hold my hand.

                                                       AW

                                                                  With permission