The Sign of Times

I had a dream that I fell asleep

deep within the Garden of Eden

my eyes closed to a blue planet

where apparently 33.2 million people

lived there every day life with HIV

 

while the government argued over

which multi-billion dollar company

was worth them bailing out next

6,800 people were affected each day

 

we continued looking for a tall man

with a dialysis machine in the mountains

vengeance is mine, said the Lord

the sky turned from a blue paradise

to a red color so deep it looked like hell

 

5,700 people died from AIDS that day

 

our senators continued to fight progress

Universal Healthcare got labeled a communist

everyday man was unable to pay for medical coverage

15 million children were orphaned by AIDS

and one child died every minute from it

 

my lord then asked me to look at these people

and explain to him how money, vengeance

greed, vanity, hate, discrimination, politics,

being communist, being democratic, rich,

poor, right or wrong had anything to do with

 

LOVE

 

for if I loved my neighbor as I loved myself

then I would see the urgency in the true

statistics that were listed above and I would

know what it meant for me and for everyone

 

I open my eyes and found myself drifting

from the Garden of Eden back down to Earth

with beautiful blue skies and pretty green grass

so I can watch yet another friend die of this disease

while the rest of the planet doesn’t seem to care

Reviews

[Gracie-San]

Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

This poem was so blunt and honest. It tugged at your heartstrings and made you think, while using facts and statistics to make it even more realistic than it already was. Not to mention, the way you use your words are very subtle and very simple, and they are very effective.

I loved this.

[deeps]

WOW this is a powerful write here.
I enjoyed this one alot.
OUTSTANDING write!

[heich]

i cried..-sob-its beautiful..

[Ruth]

Statistics are always lies to a degree, I believe! lol
This is powerful work hon, a really poignant write. You know alot of the things we are told to believe are always wrong! lol
As a human race, we are mind controlled!
Awesome poem love
xx

[RTB]

statistics always blow my mind thats depressing powerful impression you have talent

[.]

wow. powerful read.

[Liza]

if only it was just a dream; or a nightmare not a reality
this hell does exist on earth
and love doesn't save any one from death and sickness
there's no clear answer
why do children suffer?
why is this disease being spread when they know its deadly
its like no one cares
about the children or themselves :(

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

a truly evocative prayer for todays~ you weave a complex pattern threading from a promised garden gone to rot ~ rooting in the demoralized and immoral network of sociopolitical circumstances~ I often wander how and why human beings so easily hand over the reigns of ethics to old white men with megalomaniacal tendencies in shiny offices building skyscrapers so alluring on the outside yet so hollow within~when do people become sheeple giving the reigns to themseves over to mass media obese with so many careless prevarications and caustic atttitudes toward human life~

[Desert Dreamer]

A poem to bring awareness to this issue...I get angry knowing how much our country is spending on this war and wish we could spend more helping people instead. I like the dream setting.

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

lota, masterful and powerful writing! I love this .. it is awareness poetry.

This is so strong and as i read i get angry as all you wrote is true,, possibly there is a cure for aids that the US government does not disclose because as you say, greed and dollar signs ...

I love this , truly a deep and , wake up America read!

Chloe

[R E Tree]

This is powerful and out standing. It really impressed it gets me thinking about HIV because some people might have it and they don't know if they have got it. It's scary thinking about it just hope I don't have it. But I do feel sorry for all those that do.