Good Bye, Pal (Dedicated To All Aids Patients) Poem by Sulaiman Mohd Yusof

He was a teacher
He was a womanizer
He was a lover
To a girl named Dover
He was a flamboyant
Life for him was always extravagant
He was befriended by many
Virtually had no enemy

He was outgoing and adventurous
Making life to the fullest
But there’s lies a hidden path
Something that only few would have realized

He got a new lover in town
Heroin, which also called ‘Angel Dust’
Why did he resorted to drug
Forgetting all his triumphant past
Leading life to the death gallows
Only he knew

Year after year
Till he was captured by surprise
Rehabilitated twice
Discharged from school
Became a fool
No more cool

He went astray
Ten years after
Ended up in a sick bay
Nursing his full-blown AIDS anyway
Paying the price for sharing needles
Now the pain is endless

When I met him at the hospital
He was no longer ‘him’
The disease is fatal
Chances of recovery was slim
Starting with the wasting syndrome
One by one of his organs failed
Eternal diarrhea made him so frail
And fragile
Three week after admission
He died
An obvious premonition
Good Bye, pal.