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19 December, 2012

At the Maternity Ward

Cuddly Bird


visitor
at the maternity ward
the old stork

3 comments:

  1. Picture the scene: it's about 4 or 5 a.m., and I'm propped up against the side of my wife's bed in the maternity hospital, our newborn son sleeping in a cot by her side. My neck is stiff from trying to sleep sitting upright; after the excitement of the preceding night, sleep does not come easily.

    I stand and peek between the curtains that hang over the room's long window, looking out over the hospital complex from our place on the eighth storey. Mist is everywhere - this is a November morning - and all is still except for the bending of the tall trees.

    Suddenly, a ragged old stork flies through the night, between the tall hospital buildings, cutting a swirling path through the mist. His huge wings beat so slowly that I wonder he stays aloft.

    My tired, but very happy, mind only realised the significance of seeing a stork at a maternity ward when I retook my seat. The poor stork looked as if he had experienced a busy night.

    The photograph that completes this haiga is fitting: it is a hand-made bird, given to my wife for our new baby by a Chinese lady that runs a stall on the open-air market in town.

    Another little avian visitor for our newborn, looking rather comfortable in the photograph by my teatable...

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  2. Congrats on boy number two. I had my second son in November as well.

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  3. Most kind, GN, and congratulations to you and your partner, too! Double boys is rather good fun, is it not? :)


    Toodlepip,

    Hobbes

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(and thanks)