Z to A (I.P.)

I could not believe what came in the door,
as I tended my young patient’s needs;
they say there’s a first time for everything,
and this was a First with a capital ‘F’!

A unique visiting companion indeed; his dad –
a cloven-hoofed sort in tow, shuffled in to the crude
wooden hut, doubled as the local hospital.

The two of them stood by the little boy’s bed
as his small, brown hand reached out and stroked
the unlikely creature’s velvet nose.

Tears stood in the old man’s eyes. “His name’s Zac,
Ahmed. He seems to like you. What do you think?”
His son – speechless, but his eyes said it all
before he drifted back to sleep.

His heart’s desire was to ‘meet’ a zebra, in the flesh.
In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t asking for a lot.
All it took – a docile donkey and a spot of black,
and white paint, and dab of imagination.

Plus an all important prayer, or two, on the dusty track to town
to ensure, cloudy as it was, it didn’t dare rain. And so
it never did. God sure does move in mysterious ways.