Teenage Mentality

I still have the memory of

my lost innocence.

I still remember her face.

The first conversation we had.

Most importantly.

The way her body felt.

Her soft white complexion skin

against mine.

Her breasts, her hands and lips against mine

with passion, at sixteen

Over and over

Again and again

We played this game

Touching and kissing

‘till ecstasy paid us a both a visit.

I still remember her lip technique

down-below.

Neither too fast nor too slow,

just the way we both wanted it to be.

Immediately I was inside.

And thought less about HIV.

I can still remember my second experience.

“ceaseless passion”

That’s how I describe it.

With the reality of AIDS

I still did it will passion

Without any protection.

And it only took one knock

On the door,

To get us down on the floor.

I remember thinking

“if this is how I continue to behave”

It will take just as quick to

dig me a grave.

As if that wasn’t a lesson enough.

I could not avert myself from

falling into the deep hole of temptation.

With my wild orgasmic youthful imagination,

Still thinking less about the killer disease.

I found someone new.

Clouding myself with lies,

And making promises I can’t keep.

I thought I found the real definition of love.

The true description of true love.

Again the touching and kissing game

was played.

Only this time the laws

of protection were obeyed.

A few months passed.

And again the laws of protection

were disobeyed.

“but I trust her!”

That’s what I told myself.

But today I know that trust

will never protect me from HIV.

Trust is the reason why

young people today are dying

like flies.

Trusting someone will not

replace the love I have for myself.

I wonder why? why?

No matter how much we know.

No matter how much pain we see in other

people’s eyes.

And how many AIDS-related funerals

we attend.

We(people of South Africa)

Still find it hard to learn.

We find it hard to believe.

Ignorance is placed on a pedestal.

That’s the reason why the youth of today

has to learn to think like adults,

and kill this teenage mentality

before it totally destroys the nation.