A boy!

Haiku of survival

Time’s dust has settled,

Joseph has been forgotten.

They are guests no more.

Israel’s children

have prospered in Egypt land;

but now they are feared.

Israel’s children

are made slaves. They are oppressed,

and forced to labour.

Their lives are bitter,

they are treated brutally;

there is no relief.

Final solution

number one: kill all the boys

as soon as they’re born.

The midwives resist.

They explain: Hebrew women

don’t wait for midwives.

Throw them in the Nile,

those baby boys! But the girls,

you can let them live.

A boy-child was born.

His mother kept him hidden.

Three months. Too big now.

Made a reed basket,

floated it in the river.

His sister kept watch.

Coming down to bathe,

Pharaoh’s daughter saw the boat.

Her maid drew it in.

Surprise! It’s a boy!

You’ll need a nurse, said sister.

Can you find me one?

The mother was paid.

She nursed him. When he had grown,

took him to the court.

The princess raised him

as her son, named him Moses:

drawn from the water.

© Ken Rookes 2023