Friday 23 September 2016

It's Still Here, Folks (September 23, 2016)

As a teenager
I remember
The "die in"s
By local AIDS activists
In downtown Toronto.

As they protected
Government inaction
On this killer virus
In the 1980s.

Once more
AIDS has reared
Its ugly head.

As a new canary
Has replaced
The LGBT+ community 
In the coal mine.

Of this battle
For life and death.

As alarm bells
Are being rung
By the provincial medical
And Aboriginal communities. 

In a province
That enjoys
The luxuries
Of the developed world.

With the inflection
And death rates
Of the worse
Developing nations
With high HIV/AIDS.

As if
They're an ostrich
With its head
Stuck
In the sand.

Not wanting
To believe
The statistics
Before them.

At what point
Does public safety
Come first
In preventing
These needless deaths?

Are we
That much ahead
By saving a nickel
now.

Only
Having to spend
A dollar or more
In future budgets?

Sadly
Reality is
Never 
So simple.

Therisa © 2016

Author's noteSadly, in the province of Saskatchewan, the Aboriginal and Metis communities are staggering, under the deadly epidemic of HIV/AIDS that's twice Canada's national rate. Although, noone want to mention it, but if this was happening, in the "white" population of Saskatchewan, Heaven and Hell would be move, to bring this epidemic under control, regardless, of the cost to the provincial budget. Below, is a link to this unfolding tragedy, in Saskatchewan: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatchewan-doctors-state-of-emergency-hiv-1.3768183

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