In the Beginning

Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XVI, Issue 3, 1 July 1923, Page 110

In the Beginning

My house was small — i didn't fit, So I just burst d wall of it, And floated in serene surprise Into a tube of paradise. On I drifted — lonely now, Into a house like a sheltering bough; And there I met another, like me, And together we were company. Clinging together, side by side, We grew to the wall where the house was wide. Growing and growing— the house grew, too — And we dressed in villi of rosy hue. An embryo we, folded and flexed. Ovoid and small — a foetus next. But hunger came — We couldn't live and breathe just the same— So formed from our chorion A place for air — a restaurant. Since first we met throe months had flown; As one we flourished into bone, - And muscle, skin and brain, Within that chorion membrane.

Cropped hair upon our head ; Upon our skin was colour red; Over all the vernix rose, And we maintained our egg-like pose. Appeared eyebrows and lashes — ■ Liquor aninii for splashes, Smooth and soft lanugo waved, Our tissues were with fat cells paved. Tuto our umbilicus fixed Was the tube where air and life-blood mixed ; Upward floating in spiral twist, The vessels in Whartonian mist. Happily we quickened there, Kicked our limbs without a care. Somersaulted in and out, Breech below, then roundabout. Then came a day — we found a way To squirm into the light of day. Flexing and twisting round and round, At last we made a funny sound. Chilled and gasping, open-eyed, Thereupon a mother spied. Light there was, and air, and space — A baby in the human race. D. W.