Lord Vishnu
Lord Vishnu, it has been said, has experienced 10 incarnations
She went through her Buddhist period in her early 20’s
Most weekends spent out at the Tibetan Buddhist Society in Mickleham Road
Deep in meditation, or slaving in the garden
Peace and tranquility, as long as you weren’t assigned whipper snipper duties
This Life in her belly
This reincarnate
Who could it be?
Surely not bloody Vishnu again?
She played with the idea, dark that it is,
That if she died during childbirth,
Could she rebirth herself?
That somehow, at that exact point of death
Her essence be squeezed out between her legs to rebirth.
The doctor’s slap both lodging old life
And letting new life take its first breath
Then, perhaps she could rewrite the dishwater world of her childhood
Nothing drastic mind you but her upbringing was…
Well, a little less Disney and a whole lot more Wobbies World
And that long held belief, until the age of 14
That Mr Whippy only played his music when he ran out of ice cream
She could thank her Father for that one
It was a school excursion to the Melbourne Zoological Gardens
When she dropped that clanger on her friends
Remembers that day more clearly than the surrender of her virginity
She’s never once been back to the zoo
And don’t even think of whistling Greensleeves
She feels the pressure and the push
And knows that new/old life will be entering this world soon
She will share her life essence with this wee babe
But for the birth, she will not die
That will come in the teenage years
Lord Vishnu, it has been said, has experienced 11 incarnations.
Words: B Ditchfield