The poem juxtaposes scenes in a hospital room and a doctor performing necessary procedures on the raped baby to scenes of normal, natural scenes of parenting. For example, “when the bleeding baby was admitted to [the doctor’s] care,” a “Karoo shepherd crooned a ramkietje lullaby.” Throughout the poem, these opposite scenes play out to comfort the doctor who is in despair over the baby’s condition. To comfort the doctor, the poet reminds him of the...
The poem juxtaposes scenes in a hospital room and a doctor performing necessary procedures on the raped baby to scenes of normal, natural scenes of parenting. For example, “when the bleeding baby was admitted to [the doctor’s] care,” a “Karoo shepherd crooned a ramkietje lullaby.” Throughout the poem, these opposite scenes play out to comfort the doctor who is in despair over the baby’s condition. To comfort the doctor, the poet reminds him of the good in the world. As the doctor is giving the baby an opiate, a mother gently breastfeeds her baby. When he is stitching up the baby, a parent is reading another chapter of a story to a baby. When the doctor exclaimed, “Where is God?” a father sits watch over his sleeping child.
All of these scenes of parenthood and love are added to ease the pain the doctor feels for the baby. They are used to remind and assure the doctor that what he is witnessing is not normal and that “all of us” thank him for his gentle, kind service to the baby.
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