Diary of an HIV-positive man
This article by Beatrice Tonhodzayi appeared in the Herald on 11 October 2008 and on Kubatana.net. I was moved when I read it.
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He has been living with HIV for the past five years. He took the test after his wife of 20 years had tested positive. Tamuka (not real name) says that day will forever be imprinted on his mind because it was the last time he was to ever have a conversation that lasted more than an hour with the woman he is married to. “She has hated me since then. She lives in the same house with me only because there is nowhere else she can go to. We don’t laugh together, and we rarely talk to each other. We talk “AT” each other only when it is absolutely necessary - mostly about money or the children, he said.” Read more
O, The Herald
O, The Herald
How you afflict me like a boil
Making my head ache like a drunkard’s on a cold morn
Your words leap and sting, killing all sense of hope
You’re a package of poison, dripping with people’s blood
A gong of propaganda like a male prostitute
Prowling in the night in hunt for a quick squeeze
O, how you crack hearts apart
Wearily, you speak with a single voice
As if you are a one-lipped monster
O, The Herald
How many more tears will you see
Till your ink runs dry?
