Egg

There once lived a Brave Being, fortified in a dome

I am invincible, it said

Here, in my armor, my home

Once or twice its world shifted and rustled

Nothing can do me harm, it said

Here, in my armor, my castle

Beyond the whiteness of its impeccable walls

Were valleys of cardboard nests

Where the unfertilized sat still-born.

Beyond the dormant valleys of cardboard

Was a crumpled sky, brown, as a paper bag.

Beyond the crumpled paper-brown sky

Were two long arms, wrapped around like pythons

Thinking about dinner,

Carrying a whole universe of groceries.

The smallest things,

like a shard of misplaced pavement

And a sudden loss of balance

Is enough to send a whole universe plummeting into chaos

The crumpled paper sky,

The valleys of living-death

The fragile white cradles of Life never to live.

The brown paper grocery bag exploded on to the street

The python-arms despaired,

And the Brave Being, a Life never to have lived,

lay dead in a sprawl of yellow yoke.