Sue Parritt, Victoria Regional Meeting.
Born on this day in the season of new birthings
My tiny body whisked from womb warmth
Laid egg-like within an incubator
Unwashed unweighed a scrap of barely breathing life
Expected to arrive for summer’s glorious June
Beyond red-brick hospital’s green gardens
Church bells rang out the joy of resurrection
Lifted momentarily the drab grey veil
Of bomb blast rubble and empty silent homes
Still smothering those northern islands
Asleep in my unconventional crib
I could not hear clear voices soar in praise
Or oft-repeated peace prayers
Or an anxious grandmother’s whispered plea
‘May it please the Lord to take her’
Despite this inauspicious dawning
The Lord had four season plans for me
So sixty-two years on I reach another birthday
As autumn leaves blanket the sun-baked earth
Of this sea-wrapped southern continent
But today I am denied an Easter Sunday celebration
February’s added leap year hours
Have pushed my birth date into Monday
No matter every day is sacred in life’s calendar
Welcome as pealing bells on that post-war April morning
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