Faces, smiling faces
Children of Africa.
Curly headed urchins, innocent eyes
Searching, questioning — Why?
Where has my mommy gone? Where is papa?
How do we tell them?
How can they understand?
A scourge has swept across their country
Devastating family, business and life.
Aids — HIV positive, suffering, death.
Who will run the country?
Who will till the soil? Who will teach the children?
Gone. A generation wiped out, a gap
growing wider with each passing day.
Hunger, poverty, hopelessness.
A pall of mourning hangs in the air,
Tangible, weighing down those left behind.
Villages deserted, ghosts of bygone days
Waving in the desert winds.
Children old before their time
Forced to fend for self and siblings.
Outsiders gaze in unbelief.
Mind boggling numbers penetrate the airways;
Fingers pointing, judgment ripe
Lifestyle- reaping what has been sown,
Response to the demands of the flesh
Has lead to disaster.
One perpetrator in a family has doomed
Progeny to illness and death.
An entire continent sits on the brink
Of obliteration.
Is there no hope, no cure in sight?
Faces, smiling faces.
Voices speaking hope.
God is here, He loves us.
Let us help one another
Build a future, share resources.
And from outside, may hearts be stirred
And hands reach out to touch with
Love and money, medicine and
knowledge,
Giving life and love until the darkness
has past.
