Merciless Mercenary by Goodwell Kaipa

Written By Human Rights Art Festival

Goodwell Kaipa is a 27-year-old who lives in Monkeybay, Malawi. He loves writing especially poetry to understand the world around him. During his free time, he likes visiting the local library in his area to read a book or two.

Author Foreword:

He wrote this poem to express his grief after losing a lot of close and loved ones to the AIDS epidemic.

It troubles me to see mounds

Now as dry as a granite stone

A reminder that you came not to play

But to deprive us of those we hold dear

Don't your fangs go blunt from your insatiable hunger?

You who wreaks havoc unspeakable

A merciless mercenary on crusade to annihilate

Leaving behind wailing orphans

Their parents prematurely nipped from the bud

Owing to your virulent nature

Campaigns against you crop up now and again

Yet your victims accumulate like speed bumps

Mounds in the ground

You a victorious warrior

You an epidemic that has spared no household

Human Rights Art Festival

Tom Block is a playwright, author of five books, 20-year visual artist and producer of the International Human Rights Art Festival. His plays have been developed and produced at such venues as the Ensemble Studio Theater, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, IRT Theater, Theater at the 14th Street Y, Athena Theatre Company, Theater Row, A.R.T.-NY and many others.  He was the founding producer of the International Human Rights Art Festival (Dixon Place, NY, 2017), the Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival (2010) and a Research Fellow at DePaul University (2010). He has spoken about his ideas throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Turkey and the Middle East. For more information about his work, visit www.tomblock.com.

http://ihraf.org
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