Surrogacy

By | 1 November 2015

It is the stork who labours
to deliver baby Dumbo to his sad
and silent single mother.

The heft of a hundred-kilo sack
had to be held aloft across the Technicolor
map of Disney’s pre-war USA

in search of a moving target—
a humping caterpillar of travelling circus train.
Only a domestic flight,

but imagine the sweet relief
at unlocking his beak, the tension
headache born of bearing an elephant child.

He does his job with a smile,
offers genuine warmth in generous addition
to the contractual requirement of professionalism,

congratulates the long-lashed lady
and relaunches on monochrome wings.
His total screen time amounts to three minutes,

a seasoned bit player,
agent of plot progression,
class act who only weeps in transit.

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