If for a second and a day,

Each our pain dismissed and gone.

To the winds would follow,

This child's song or requiat…

You make, name me, and label give,

For the world to see and distain.

You may in haste flee from here,

But not from the reflection of your ignorance.

I am human made of clay,

Of the same earth did we both spring to life.

Why then- in sorrow do you flee…

When confronted by that which is within me.

 Do you, for fear unfounded, to preserve who you are,

Turn your head and look the other way?

Can you, without recompense, face me without malice?

Will you, without loss or gain, comfort me in times of pain?

Will you ever, before my dying breath, acknowledge my humanity?

I am as you are forever till the sunset of those things lost,

Just as you are who I was; till the sunrise of the dawn of man.

Will you, can you, should you, would you want to…

Look past the labels, the smoke and mirrors.

Embrace me as again your own,

Look at me and not away.

Tell me I am again humanity,

Explain to me why the pain.

Pain of days yesterday and untold,

The story you know and the one I tell.

I am not a disease,

Nor is the disease your death.

Unless your ignorance it perseveres,

Un-embraced the knowledge I gave.

To you I cry awake- turn face me…

Listen well before the song it fades.

I am your Family, your child, a part your world still.

I am human too as you will see,

So are you my friend so are you.

Love me still though I am ill,

Embrace me oh please do not hate.

I am you and you I this day,

Not the HIV within me not the innocence lost.

Embrace my life as I embrace yours,

Love me for nothing lost is given,

Care for me because I care for you…

Do not shun me today….

I am human still.

And so too are you.