AIDS

by Judy Burnette

AIDS was always just a word

yet now it bears your name;
But it has not changed how I feel
I love you just the same.

We should never judge another

with thoughtless words or deeds;
For we all have within us
wounds that have made us bleed.

So you have an illness

none of us quite understand;
It doesn't make you less a person
nor less a man.

You are still that same sweet person

that I have always known;
No matter the distance between us
in my heart you will always have a home.