Home » Poems » Chanda Katonga » HIV: The Capitalist Virus

HIV: The Capitalist Virus

They said you came from chimpanzees—
That deep in some African jungle
You leapt across species,
A silent hunter cloaked in blood.

But we have lived with chimpanzees
For tens of thousands of years.
We shared forests,
We shared meat,
We shared mythologies.
Why now?

They claim you're a natural disease—
But if that were true,
Why does nature not offer a cure?
Polio fell. Smallpox vanished.
Yet you—since 1981—
Have danced above the heads
Of even our greatest minds.

You are not nature’s design.
You are manmade silence.
You are a disease of profit,
A political invention,
A capitalist experiment gone global.
You were born in the shadows
Of white laboratories
Fueled by Cold War paranoia,
By the greed of corporations
And the prejudice of empires.

You made kings of pharmaceutical companies
And slaves of the sick.
You are not a virus.
You are a business model.

Billions have been spent.
Trillions earned.
You made markets out of mortality.
You made luxury yachts
From the suffering of mothers.
The cure?
Buried beneath patents,
Guarded by legal walls
And the blood of the voiceless.

If the world can send robots to Mars,
Edit genes,
Simulate universes—
Why can’t it cure a virus
With a mapped genome
And decades of study?

The answer is clear:
Because your existence
Feeds the engines of greed.
Because a cured patient
Is less profitable
Than a permanently treated one.

And you dare—
You dare to point your trembling finger at Africa,
The continent where life began,
And say: “There. That is where I was born.”
Lies.
The first known case?
The USA, 1969.
A teenager.
No jungle.
No monkey.
Just silence.

You demonized a continent
To distract from your laboratories.
You blamed the poor
To protect the rich.
But truth, like water, always finds a crack.

And now—
The world is watching.
The veil is lifting.
Young scientists are rising
Not for profit,
But for justice.
For healing.
For the truth.

Your days are numbered,
HIV.
Not because you are strong—
But because your creators
Can no longer contain the storm they sparked.
And when the truth stands,
No lie—
No corporation—
No empire—
Can withstand its weight.

We see you.
We name you.
We end you.

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Beej Simrov

Date: 7/26/2025 6:22:00 PM

As a gay man, I can both imagine how this was an intentional virus, and also hope deeply that it wasn't to imagine that humanity wouldn't be so cruel. This reminds me of the diseases in ticks; it's curious why there was a sudden rise in deadly neurological diseases (encephalitis in Russia) appearing in a species that is pretty much ignored by all of recent human history. Biowarfare is the scariest thing I can think of.

Beej Simrov
Date: 7/27/2025 1:02:00 AM

It's often hard to believe in the concepts of "good" and "evil" but human behavior is often just as black and white as that dichotomy. The American healthcare system is a perfect example of what evil truly is: profit for the few in sacrifice for masses of human life and labor. Hopefully there are more people like you who are willing and able to cognize and communicate such corruption in art forms.

Chanda Katonga
Date: 7/26/2025 9:47:00 PM

Thank you so much for your honest and powerful reflection. Your words carry a weight that echoes the same dread and deep questioning that inspired me to write this piece. The mere possibility that a virus could be engineered—whether by design or through systemic neglect—forces us to confront the darkest sides of human ambition and apathy. As a gay man, your insight is especially important, because you speak from a space of lived resilience. I, too, want to believe that humanity couldn’t be so cruel… but history hasn’t always given us that comfort. Biowarfare, environmental manipulation, profit-driven healthcare—these are real specters. And your mention of the sudden rise in neurological diseases reminds us that we are constantly being asked to look deeper beneath the surface. I’m honored that my poem stirred this level of thought and dialogue. That, perhaps, is how healing and accountability begin. With deep respect...