Poem: Down Low - Nassau, Bahamas

The world is in agony
as the death toll of AIDS related cases
continues to grow.
Families and friendships suffer loss of loved ones
due to the legacy of the brothers
who chose to be “down low”.
What a cruel joke
for God to place on heterosexual couples,
a joke tainted in deceit.
The punch line being
that same sex rendezvous are transmitting a disease
to innocent spouses upon communal bedroom sheets.
The injured party does not deserve the death sentence
or the leprous mental curse of having HIV.
She is doomed to feel the judgment
of the biblical commandment,
“thou shalt not commit adultery”.
It was easy for us and the most pious in society
to ignore the AIDS crisis
when it was deemed a gay disease.
Now astronomical medical costs
and an eluding cure for victims
have the most religious in our community
pleading for their God’s mercy on their knees.
The exchange of fluids by contaminated needles
and drug related transfusions
promulgate a socially dysfunctional situation.
Failure to utilize contraceptives
and seek advanced testing
rapidly spreads infections in developed
and third world nations.
Many people wear blood toned ribbons annually
to honor the victims of AIDS
and eagerly fund research
toward a medical solution.
They hope that preemptive dialog
and safe sex alternatives
will limit the spread of infection
by sweet hearting, buggery,
illicit drug use and prostitution.
A mountain river should not be compelled
to go upstream,
that is not the way its refreshing waters
were created to flow.
Until the biblical rapture
every town and every family will continue to pay
for the brothers who chose to be “down low”.

By Sean R. E. Munnings
The Raga-Lover

Copyright © 2007 Sean R. Munnings, all rights reserved.