Poetry Corner: Highly Infectious Venom – H. I. V.  (1)

0

Still in her teenage years

Celestine suddenly grew from a child to a mother

Still in her teens



She gave birth to her first child at sixteen

To prove she was no more a child

‘My baby,’ she called her

A proud mother not to brother

 

Now that Celestine was a mother just like her mother

Her peers had a question for her

“Here’s your father

Where’s your baby’s father?”

She’s my baby, no questions further

 

Celestine soon moved into a refresh mode

Thanks to her parents whose concerning mood

Moved them to put her into an apprenticeship

An apprenticeship of hair braiding and hair perming

Also of hair drying and hair curling

Of those to need a weave-on and a wig-on

Also of those wanting to have a manicure and a pedicure

To bring her back to a sane growing mode

But little did they know that Celestine would take a step back

…into a troubling mode

 

Celestine served all customers with compassion

Even friends and partners and spouses of customers

Especially those needing special attention

Especially those needing holding and touching and caressing and kissing

…with passion

She received the best gifts from her customers with hands full of appreciation

She promised to give of her best with open arms

…whether it was a call from within or a call from without

A promise she kept

…whether it was a call for her or a call from her

Her apprenticeship by-and-by trailed a pale second to her relationships

 

Celestine got well tuned up to this routine

She knew when to tell a lie to hide a truth

To fake a truth for a lie to tell the truth

But the truth was that she began to feel unwell

This truth she knew so well

One visit to the hospital was all it took to spill the beans

…she was highly infected with a virus

And she believed it so well

For she had been so unwell

 

Celestine hid it so well

Whom could she tell?

To whom could the beans be spilled?

…for a doom to spell

Another visit to the hospital dimmed her fears

For an anti-retroviral to lower a viral load was administered

It was loaded intermittently into her blood stream

To slow down a streaming progression to become a dreaded patient

 

While Celestine hoped patiently for a virus to offload

A flurry of marriage offers waited for her to uphold

How could she be so inconsiderate to say aye?

So unkind to infect innocent guys

So she closed her ears and eyes

To the pouring proposals from far and wide

She would prefer a perpetual spinster to remain

An insensitive infector to refrain

Than to couple with an unsuspecting son of man

 

However, one tempting offer caught her off guard

It was one suggested and sanctioned by her parents

As she lowered her guard to welcome this one

Her parents were beside themselves with ecstatic joy

“Now we count among in-laws

Now we can dream to hold legit grand girls and boys

…in our arms”

 

Celestine’s groom of the future

Was not one to toy with a future

So he opted for tests of all sorts and nature

To ascertain his bride’s future with a groom

To prove his own readiness to feature as a groomed groom

 

There was a day selected for the test

A test to put all fears to rest

There was a groom ready for the test

But Celestine was not ready to awaken her fears from rest

She put all matters to rest

She wound a rope tight around her neck

And left the rest of her body to hang

Then she hanged a written text on a door knob

“I am a hive of a Highly Infectious Venom”

Leave a Reply