The Little Girl in a Bright Green Dress

A little girl who has AIDS.

The little girl in a bright green dress
is alone.
Small adults in the corners of the large white room
blink at her in caution,
Holding the hands of the large children
who feed them their fear.
Even her silver-lined kin, dotted in her mind
does not want to play.
Perhaps she has found a new friend,
one who is clean.

The little girl in a bright green dress
reaches her hair
in a frenzy,
finding nothing.
Small adults only blink again,
at the alien who is forbidden.
The large children stifle a cough as they move
their small ones torward the corner.

Mommy is away
from the little girl in a bright green dress.
Her dress in white
to everyone but the little girl in a green dress.
She sees the red,
she always sees the red,
and as she blinks twice like the small adults
it never goes away.