Eaves drip babies
1710 CE 2010 CE
The scream hit him.
ignoring the midwife
he cradled his wife.
He felt buoyant. His new job would start tomor-
row. It was still a labouring job but better than the
building site he'd been on. This was a new thing for
him - never been one for going near churches. The
rain was a pain in the arse but the whole point was
to improve the drainage where it was so wet.
Their first baby,
dead before it was born;
The priest would want to know.
The old flagstones must have been there for don-
key's years but they'd been well made however old
they were. They mustn't be damaged. This would
be a slow spade and shovel job. No digger could
get this close to the church wall. He took a crow-
bar, edged up the first stone, then the second, car-
ried them away to lean up safely against an old
vault.
Still born,
unbaptised
an unmarked grave
The soil was dark, nourished by the rain which, for
centuries, had dripped off the eaves. It could have
been dry, stony dust so close to the walls, difficult
to work.
But there was something else - tiny bones had
been hidden here, beneath the flagstones, right by
the church wall.
A small hole,
The steady drip
of comfort.
He found another job, moved away
but still from time to time, he returns
to stand beneath the eaves. He always
places flowers beside the small
headstone in the churchyard that now
marks the grave for unknown babies.
He comes back sometimes
when it's raining
to stand a while.
Around 1600-1850 in the UK, still born babies, as they had not been baptised, could not be buried in consecrated ground. Not infrequently they were placed in unconsecrated ground to the north of the church or close to the church wall under the eaves, hence the name - Eaves drip babies.
Eaves drip babies was first published in
Haibun Today [a Haibun and Tanka Prose
Journal] March 2012
Page(s) 22-23
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