A TREE OF FEATHERS

I, who but a child
Many woes have seen for my days
I cry out, why!!!
In pain I speak of AIDS

Weak and frail she wasted away
In tears and sobs I pray
Oh, God! save my mother
Beside me my infant brother

Why? O why must she suffer?
Never was she with another
A faithful wife in life
There she lay, bundle of grief

The sins of the fathers
Are not for them alone
Nothing but bones
When death comes to gather

Justice! Is this just?
Are the innocent fools
For my mother’s life is crush
By the husband she loved

Of what good is hope...
Like a tree of feathers
Our hopes are blown
In fair or bad weather


The devastating effects of HIV/AIDS in our communities are too serious to be overlooked. However, one can live surrounded by the sufferings caused by HIV/AIDS and yet be oblivious to its visible realities. Such is the deception of the heart of man.

In this poem I have endeavour to capture the pain of the innocent. The orphan child who has lost both parents to HIV/AIDS, and the innocent wife and mother whose only sin was being ‘faithful’.

In a world where ‘bad things’ happen to ‘good people’ it is still challenging to come to grip with this tragic reality: wives and mothers are dying every now and then consequently, without any fault on their part; children are made orphans even before they discover right and wrong.

If you are moved by this poem to view the issues in your community with open eyes, allowing your heart to be moved with compassion, you will accomplish more than any NGO or Government could.

Copyright © 2009 K.K. Agbermodji All Rights Reserved.