It's Still Here, Folks (September 23, 2016)

As a teenager

I remember

The "die in"s

By local AIDS activists

In downtown Toronto.

As they protected

Government inaction

On this killer virus

In the 1980s.

Once more

AIDS has reared

Its ugly head.

As a new canary
Has replaced
The LGBT+ community 
In the coal mine.

Of this battle

For life and death.

As alarm bells
Are being rung
By the provincial medical
And Aboriginal communities. 

In a province
That enjoys
The luxuries
Of the developed world.

With the inflection
And death rates
Of the worse
Developing nations
With high HIV/AIDS.

As if

They're an ostrich

With its head

Stuck

In the sand.

Not wanting

To believe

The statistics

Before them.

At what point

Does public safety

Come first

In preventing

These needless deaths?

Are we
That much ahead
By saving a nickel
now.

Only
Having to spend
A dollar or more
In future budgets?

Sadly

Reality is

Never 

So simple.

Therisa © 2016

Author's note: Sadly, in the province of Saskatchewan, the Aboriginal and Metis communities are staggering, under the deadly epidemic of HIV/AIDS that's twice Canada's national rate. Although, noone want to mention it, but if this was happening, in the "white" population of Saskatchewan, Heaven and Hell would be move, to bring this epidemic under control, regardless, of the cost to the provincial budget. Below, is a link to this unfolding tragedy, in Saskatchewan: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatchewan-doctors-state-of-emergency-hiv-1.3768183