Birth
25 June 1973, Lesotho, Southern Africa opus 72
| 16 January 2023 1545 Hours | | Birth, Family, Lesotho |
Christine was pregnant--oh, so pregnant.
Consulting with our local Catholic hospital,
The doctor informed us that if there were a problem,
The child would be saved before the mother!
Mad searching for an alternative----
A black Mosotho, Dr. Mohapelo, a surgeon in Maseru--
A colleague of Christine's father, Dr. Jaques.
Now we confronted a breech----feet down.
Pierre was a large baby--what to do?
The moment came at home, water flowing.
Now a many mile trip to Maseru and the hospital.
(A birth in the Catholic hospital in Roma would have been so close.)
Maseru------Into the hospital and the operating room--
Electricity failing in the city,
But sun in early morning, coming through the upper window.
Sterile packs removed from the autoclave.
(I was there!)
Anesthesia, then the Cesarean cut in the abdomen.
The child was pulled up and out, umbilicus severed and tied off.
But oh, so blue--the little body was so blue!
A nurse held him upside down and pounded on his back.
"Is this normal?", I asked the surgeon.
"Not unusual", was the answer.
FINALLY, breath and a baby's wailing.
Relief.
The beginning of little Pierre Crispin's life.
Eventually back home and to a wood stove's warmth.
(Remember this was June, but in the Southern Hemisphere.)
Little, lovely child ready to meet the world.
4 January 1980, Sacramento, California opus 76
| 17 January 2023 1400 Hours | | Birth, Family, Youth |
My second son, after Pierre, was Basil Gavin.
Unlike his brother born in Africa,
Basil was an urban-birthed baby, born in Sacramento.
To carry on custom and that to which we were used to,
We found a hospital that conducted 'home births' with backup!
The young doctor was bearded and a bit Bohemian.
Thus, I offered to pay part of the expense with a butchered sheep!
He accepted and the moment finally came.
Pierre had been a breech, resulting in a Cesarean;
Basil would be a 'normal' birth--whatever that means.
As with Pierre, things got a little complex.
Forceps were needed to bring him out.
(Otherwise, nothing else unusual was required!)
After a time of recuperation, we all came home--
Once again, on our farm in Davis,
Basil was snuggled by a wood stove in the living room.
That's where life began and went on for many years--
A pastoral life, blended with remembrances of a former African experience.
The Abortion Argument opus 295
| 4 February 2024 1230 Hours | | Religion, Birth, Ethics, Politics |
Because of the power of European governmental religious groups,
Our Constitution made it clear that religion and government were separate.
Along with that, religious freedom was guaranteed for the new citizens.
Today the picture is changing with religion encroaching evermore into our government.
A major division division is the abortion argument.
One side argues that the future unborn 'child' must never be aborted,
While the other pleads that the future mother has rights over her own body and health.
Is there any way there might be a compromise between these opposing views
Both, living in this country and nation, following our Constitution?
Perhaps, if these groups agree that they should follow our law of the Land,
Then either side, having the right to freedom of individual expression,
Must live freely together, interacting in peace
And use only the logic of their beliefs to persuade the other
That all must compromise, thus acting justly under the original law.
1. We have the separation of religion and government.
2. We have freedom of religion.
3. We have freedom of speech.
If these were followed, could our nation not evolve peaceably
Towards a synergy of mutual coexistence,
As the Founders had originally intended?
Oh, Dear Southern Alabama opus 310
| 23 February 2024 1830 Hours | | Superstition, Biology, Birth, Family, Law, Medical, Philosophy, Science, Technology |
Our Southern states maintain their infectious friendly cuisine and manners.
Sadly, they hold onto 19th century-thinking concerning several subjects.
Specifically, here, is the question, when is a human, really a human?
The Alabama Supreme Court has now ruled
That a frozen embryo (a fertilized egg) is a child!
Since when could we ever freeze a child?
Since when is a frozen, unattached embryo, (an 'extra uterine child'),
And not within a female uterus, ever be considered a human child?
One of the repercussions, of course, is that 'childless parents'
May no longer be enabled to have a child!
Blind religious edicts lead to human tragedy,
When juxtaposed with the present, technological world.
Science has been developed to yield a life more 'disease free',
As well as a life with reduced mindless toil.
Here, science has allowed human couples, unable to conceive,
To be able to have a possible and healthy pregnancy.
This certainly is a clash of modern technology and continual archaic thinking.
Sole or not a Sole? opus 431
| 18 September 2024 1935 Hours | | Religion, Birth, History, Sexism |
Some laws of religion are being used in a profound conflict
With the Hippocratic Oath of 'Do no harm'.
Is there indeed a soul and when is it implanted in the new blastula?
The obliteration of a sane, humane law, which had aided women for 50 years,
Now looms large, to reveal great suffering with no helpful health care.
I seem to remember an ancient religious Egypt pharaoh banning reproduction,
Which finally resulted in the realization of a population collapse.
I recall from former reading that the regime was eliminated.
Historically real or not, have we created our own 'Egypt Syndrome',
Where our women will slowly be eliminated
Through their own deaths and lack of reproduction,
Yielding an ever-declining population to NOTHING?
The Weight of Two X Chromosomes opus 605
| 6 July 2025 1645 Hours | | Birth, Aging, Biology, Cancer, Disability, Family, Medical, Psychology, Youth |
Could there truly be a benevolent, all-knowing deity creator?
Just compare the relative ease with which men (X/Y) 'sail' through life,
While women (X/X), the absolute necessity for the continuation of human life,
Must go through such relative torment to be bearers of that life.
Large breasts--unlike any other ape-- are permanently formed--
A possible platform for cancer.
Then menstruation, continually forming 'ripe' eggs
(But inconveniently in between the bleeding periods),
Until one is finally nabbed by a sperm to create an offspring.
Birth, often very difficult or deadly,--
And then several years of producing milk to feed such offspring--
Sometimes too much with accompanying pain and other times, paucity.
Then the female is discarded from reproductive abilities,
Through the process of menopause--far sooner in life than her male counterpart.
What makes this all happen,
Is that women are endowed with a longing for an offspring--a child.
And thus, such longing, masks the clear thinking,
Concerning all the trials she must go through (sometimes alone),
Allowing human kind to reproduce and multiply for the benefit of the species.