We had no name for you

You crawled into our neighborhood silently

My uncle being your sole target

Orchestrating his premature demise

Did he entrust you into the hands of his wife?

Cacophonic coughs you gave her

Coughs accompanied by yellow spew and sometimes menacing blood

Emaciation was another tool from your weaponry

Her protruding belly did not evoke mercy from you

Did you want to send her and the seed she was keeping to her husband?

Did you think we would be spooked?

Fear and worry indeed you instilled in our hearts

That quickly drove us to the hospital with her

Through her spew the doctor caught your agents

He called them mycobacterium tuberculosis

And he called you pulmonary tuberculosis

You have a special liking for lungs, but can affect any organ

Hidden or not, you are not invincible, he said

Where is your power?

Your feebleness was put on full display

By the armour of pills she was given

Our auntie befriended them for 6 months

Religiously, she took them everyday

You shrieked and left her

Are you really this helpless?

Your stinging powers, nonetheless, cannot be underrated

Nor your ability to circulate among people in close contact

With this in mind, our auntie’s newborn was given his own shield of pills

You were incapacitated against thrusting your arrows into him

Now you see we know all your ways

You are indeed tuberculosis

And we know you are not invincible

We will seek care early when we start manifesting your symptoms

We will ensure prompt initiation of effective treatment when you infect us

We will religiously adhere to the treatment for we know you thrive in inadequate treatment

We will put on masks when caring for those who succumb to you

We will lovingly isolate those exhibiting features of your spell

And surely, in time your existence will only be conspicuous by its absence