Pestilence is a woman
She looks a lot like me
And depending on her illness
She sometimes looks like you.
She is the AIDS crisis
She was cholera in the water
She is syphilis’ biting finger
Her gaze is leprosy
Her companions, those three horsemen
Avoid her weeping eyes
Ignore corrupting fingertips.
We despise her.
Her gaunt body
Slides over the world
She is on needles
She guzzles drugs
She is all bacteria
She is the morphing virus
Unstoppable
Irresistible
Endless
Eternity waits for her
She will adopt
She gifts men’s souls
To her lifeless husband
Death
Her affairs with poverty
Scandalous
Yet she is miserable
Agonised
Loveless