soon

Vikram seth wrote this piece of poetry, back a decade. Its about a person who has been infected with HIV virus, that is he is suffering from AIDS. He can almost look at his dead end approaching. The poem is in first person. Enjoy... and yes, the last four lines are my favourites.

soon



I shall die soon, I know
This thing in my blood.
It will not let me go.
It saps my cell for food.

It soaks my night in sweat
n breaks my day in pain
No hand or drug can treat
these limbs for love or gain.

Love was the strange first cause
that bred grief in its seed,
And gain knew its own laws-
to fix ts plce and breed.

He whom I love, thank god.
Wont speak of hope or cure.
It would not do me good.
He sees that I am sure.

He knows what I have read
And will not bring me lies.
He sees that I am dead.
I read it in his eyes.

How am I to go on-
How will I bear this taste,
My throat cased in white
spawn-these hands that shake
and waste?

Stay by my steel ward bed
And hold me where I lie.
Love me when I am dead
And do not let me die.



Reread the last para...