Graham High
Haibun
Closeness of Infinity
We received the call we’d been expecting at two a.m. It’s a cold and damp November night. The hospital is ten miles away. We are tired and our minds are distracted, - already running ahead beyond the night road, and the dark trees misting past. The street lamps, the tail lights, are becoming increasingly distant.
We try to concentrate, but gradually another plane of vision has interposed itself between us and our world-scene. A sudden flurry of rain spangles the windscreen like a splash of stars, vivid and close, absorbing focus. It gets brighter and still brighter …
Suddenly, awakening from the dream, “Look out” you cry, and, “For God’s sake switch on your wiper”.
The glass squeals under the blade and at once the whole universe is dissolved. Its light swells and dribbles to one side and the approaching car narrowly skids past, alarmed to find us in the centre of the road.
In the bright lights of the labour ward our daughter-in-law is resting serenely.
Epidural jab -
just before the push of birth,
overwhelmed by peace
Page(s) 34
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