In a country too hot to give birth
A young girl is doing just that giving birth
In temperatures where the only shade
Is the shadow cast by a pencil balanced on the warlord’s table
The girl in labour now she can shout out
The heart of the sun the heat of the sun
What does it know of midwifery
What do wars know of the breaking of waters
A birth into a war-torn and parched land
A birth looking down into the driest well known to man
Sand and blood just how brave are births to become that
We should go to the hottest place in the sun
And ask it for our own sakes to bless the birth of this child
We should make tracks for tomorrow’s dawn
And with the girl’s afterbirth keep it and treasure it
Treasure it like it was the enabler and the birth of a nation

Ronald Rae