1279

I stood and watched a ewe give birth today;

Easily, her lamb slipped into life,

A twin, standing pristine, while she lay

Breathing softly, blooded, but the strife

Of transference, the time before the knife,

Hung easily, as though a benign earth

Held close reality, a silent midwife

Cosseting a child against the dearth

Of gentle dignity, which would deny it worth.

O looked up but saw no shepherd was in sight

No human hand had guided this gestation.

A ewe's instinct, an afternoon of bright

Spring sunshine, a meadow's germination

Out ran any human intervention,

Where silent nature, seeded to ensure

Another life, another generation,

Led the ewe to wash the lamb she bore

Then slowly turn to graze, as she had done before.

Between the blood of birth and sudden death

How little time to contemplate and dream.

No sooner on your feet than your life's breath

Is scattered to the elements, the gleam

Of promise, as your mother washed you clean,

Will vanish even quicker than my own

And all the hopes of youth, which now seem

Everything, be flushed away unknown

Long before you or I have time to sense we've grown.

Brian Hick May 2013

©copyright Sally Hick 9.6.25