A Generation, Gone

The face of AIDs in Africa is not the one
you might expect, and it's not one, but
millions. 700 every year in Kenya,
multiplied by every nation, every tribe.
Decimated generation leaving 13 million
orphans, many sick themselves. Mabibi* who had
counted on their children to take
care of them in their old age, now scramble to
provide for all the little ones instead.
Seventeen million dead.
Seventeen million, modern holocaust
because the people have no money for the drugs,
hope wrapped in a pill. Too many thugs in double-breasted
suits accept the money from around the world
and put it in their pockets. Some suppose conspiracy
to cut the population of the continent; others make
proposals to the nations while 6000 more are laid
to rest today. Statistics, it's been said, are numbers
without tears, but many are the tears
tonight in Africa as someone's mother dies,
a father, child. Whole families, just...
gone.

* grandparents (Swahili)

(c) Ellen Gillette, 2014