Least Said, Soonest Mended

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

(Update May 11 2017): People with HIV are living around a decade or so longer than they did 20 years ago, according to a new report in the medical journal, The Lancet. While doctors and charities are calling the increase in life expectancy for people with the virus in Europe and the US a “tremendous medical achievement” they warn many are missing out on life-saving drugs as they have not yet been diagnosed as HIV positive . Meanwhile, HIV infection and AIDS among children continues to be a significant problem in developing countries. there is no room for complacency.] RT

It appals and upsets me whenever I (still) hear of people with the HIV virus being demonised for it. While no one can deny living with HIV is never going to be easy, medical research means that people can live with it for a good many years now with the appropriate medication. Those years would be made more bearable and far better spent by those affected if the disease were not (still) treated as a taboo subject by so many people worldwide.

Diana, Princess of Wales' commitment had an amazing effect in challenging attitudes towards people living with HIV and breaking down stigma and misconceptions.

Sexual responsibility is down to every sexually active person; male or female, straight or gay. It is pathetic - if typical of a universal ethos where everything is always someone else’s fault - that gay men are (still) expected to bear the brunt of the blame for the spread of the HIV-AIDS virus.

When I was active sexually (sadly, at 70, I am not if by medical necessity rather than choice) I would regularly get tested for HIV-AIDS and count myself fortunate that the results were always negative. It makes me angry when I hear people saying they won’t have the test because they would rather not know. Maybe they wouldn’t, but what about any partner to whom they could potentially pass it on? Nor is even using a condom a guarantee of sexual health since condoms have been known to leak; safer sex is a (very) low risk option, but there is no such thing as no-risk sex.

We are living in the 21st century! That prejudice towards people with HIV-AIDS should continue to raise its ugly head among the less enlightened in societies worldwide has to be one of the greater (of many) modern tragedies; not least because, in many cases, it goes unchallenged. 

‘Shame on the body for breaking down while the spirit perseveres.’ – John Dryden 

'Those that will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not are slaves.' Lord Byron

This poem is a villanelle.

LEAST SAID, SOONEST MENDED

Bigots claim we shame human history
(always, of course, knowing better)
we sinners, 'animals', for spreading HIV

Deserving no room at an inn or charity
(imagine, feeling much like a leper);
bigots claim we shame human history

First among equals, no local dignitary
above consigning us to rumour,
we sinners, 'animals', for spreading HIV

Grand Masters in the art of sanctimony,
(as but comprising the natural order)
bigots claim we shame human history

Turning a deaf ear to such hypocrisy
God forbid any get a cold shoulder,
we 'sinners', 'animals', for spreading HIV

Beware inhumanity posing as morality
where holier-than-thous join together;
bigots claim we shame human history
we sinners, 'animals', for spreading HIV

Copyright R. N. Taber 2005; 2018

[Note: This poem was written in the early 1990’s and has been revised given that attitudes have changed (for better, for worse) since then as more  people have become better informed and less judgemental regarding anyone contracting the HIV virus; an earlier version appears under the title ‘Spelling it Out’ in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]