Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The Egg Show



The Egg Show


A couple of scantily clad yolks wobbled alarmingly
along a high wire no bigger than a thread,
then dove from the top of a tall ladder
into a tin cup hardly bigger than a thimble,
the Ringmaster egging them on all the while.

A huge mass of albumin,
shaped into the semblance of
Washington Crossing the Delaware,
stood on one leg while leathery
oblong snake eggs did wriggling flips off its back
and through a hoop of fire,
the heat changing the gender of their contents
with every pass.

The hucksters were selling pickled quail eggs,
good for 1000 years,
gaily painted blown eggs with cunning dioramas
depicting famous Easter-egg hunts of history,
and giant eggshell boats (probably ostrich)
full of jelly eggs and chocolate.

And of course Humpty Dumpty,
no fool he, didn't mess around with
any brick walls, but jumped over a smoking
frying pan of hot bacon
grease.


The end


Prev. published
The Egg Show (chapbook, 2005)

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