Human Indifference Virus

This evening I went to dinner alone. I asked the waitress for a booth, as I usually do, in the back. I told her I was feeling anti-social today and she smiled sympathetically.
Coffee, I ordered coffee and began to revise the past two year's worth of poetry.
The booth next to me contained three kids, high school age I would guess. They couldn't remember what HIV stood for:
Hydrolic Immune Vitals
Human Inane Virus
Homo Immune Villian

Human Indifference Virus.

I almost agree with the last. For the first time, I didn't feel embarrassed about correcting them. They said they were falling asleep in their class, but at me they starred, mouth agape, attentive, afraid.

I tell them about how they can contract HIV and how they can't, that the fastest growing population is minority women. I tell them that the global and domestic impact will not just be political or social but economic as well, and that it's not a problem that can be cured overnight.

I don't convince them of their own mortality or that they're just as risk as the rest of the population without taking matters into their own hands, without being smart and safe in their behaviors. They don't feel any less bullet proof, or truly believe that being safe doesn't happen by default, but they do know that HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.