Siddika Hirji

PIECES OF YOU

Why do you look at me the way you do?
Your eyes showing disgust, and your face all askew.
Is it that I am laying on the ground full of faeces and abhorrent dirt?
Can you not see that I am already hurt?
I was once able to run and smile, like you.
Then why do you do that to me when I am pieces of you.

AIDS is taking its toll.
Soon death will play its role.
I am left to lie here on this fetid smelling earth,
Begging for food, water, and mercy for all that I am worth.
I am sick and a very sorry site to look at which is true.
But I was once well and happy thus making me pieces of you.

I am starving; I have had nothing to eat.
Dehydrated and scorched by the African heat.
Occasionally, one may throw a coin to me,
But a coin when you have not the strength to walk has no worth you see.
Weep for me and the others who are sick for we are of value.
We were once as capable of you in everything, and we will always
always be pieces of you.