They were quarantined,
So nobody really worried when they were not seen,
A few days had come and gone,
The only door to their homestead still under lock and key,
As the health workers did a street to street tour to meet
the endangered populace,
A weak falsetto cry pierced through the homestead cracks
announcing the presence of life,
And when they broke the door to let them in,
They were greeted by the putrid stench of rotting flesh,
The air was so thick with the smell you could cut it with a
knife,
Totally oblivious of the grim reality which surrounded him,
He lay there nestling at his dead mother’s breast,
Sucking hard at milk that wouldn’t flow,
The stench of death fed by Ebola camped around him,
A sight so inhumanly despicable many of the health workers
cried a river of tears,
A sight that is bound to follow any one to their graves no
matter how hard one tried to make it go away,
A sight that is sure to conjure nightmares in your dreams,
A tragedy of unspeakable sorts!
One of the health workers picked him up,
Dazed and confused and numbed by shocking pain,
They gave him a thorough chlorine bath and prayed that by
some miracle he would live,
The baby boy found nestling at his mother’s breasts.
Their dog showed up,
Smelling the death,
And was the saddest of them all,
Crying uncontrollably!
©October 2014 afesehngwaHilary
