DIDACTIC JEREMIAD: "SAID AN INFANT TO HIS FATHER" BY SALONI CHAWLA

A Sensitive Poem : 

With due respect to all gentlemen, this poem is addressed only to those NON-GENTLEMEN who walk on the wrong path. 

(A poem on the Moral aspect of AIDS) 

"You sipped in poison -

it was your choice, 

not mine : but, 

it's me who will perish....   

along with you.

You played with fire, 

and I burn in it, 

without having even known 

what fire is.

I am a bud, being strangled 

before I could blossom.

You had all the time, but

I had none - for, 

when I first saw the world,

it was already too late :

my blood was already bad; 

I can't blame her who bore me; 

It's you - who  

gave her the poison too.

It's you - only you.

You touched the lightning and 

gave us the shock.

Why did you do that -

didn't you love us ? 

I lie here in pain, busy,

preparing for my journey - 

eternal yet painful;

packing all her cherished memories,

her hugs, kisses and lullabys,

her pain & desperation,

her prayers for me,

her love - not enough to be deprived of so soon :

I shall take all that 

along with my own pain,

my desire to live, 

to cling to her.........

I'll go one day and 

shall be no more.

Daddy,.....you walked in the dark and lost me forever. 

I feel sorry....... not 

for you, but for her.

It was you, who treaded

the wrong path, and 

picked up the thorns,

but it's she, who would

bleed more than you would.

A whole garden could have blossomed,

but you nurtured it 

with poison, bit by bit.

Daddy, I shall never forgive you.

If only you could tell me

 - Why did you do that - why ?

Didn't you love us ???" 

SALONI CHAWLA

The poem expresses the pain of an infant who is a victim of AIDS which he inherited from his mother, who in turn, got the disease from her husband, who got swayed away by his desires towards undesirable channels. The infant is in pain and about to die, he blames and questions his father as to why he did so. Didn't he love his family ? Through the infant's pain and questions, the poem aims to send a message to stop all those people who walk on the wrong path and is a step in the prevention of AIDS at least through the immoral route.