Regarding Eggs

The Ancient Modern

Regarding Eggs /  Joshua Alan Sturgill

I’ve decided eggs
are impossible.
Because birds are not only not round
but light and angular. Nearly the inverse

of eggs. Let go an egg, it moves
in a direction opposite that of a bird.
So this (almost unnaturally) perfect Form
emerges without precedent, contrary

to any explanation. So I’ve decided
the making of eggs in the bodies of birds
is related to their (the birds’) frequent
approaches to the Sun.

Hear me out on this, because
when science fails, Myth
must kindly intervene.
What perfect circles are found in nature?

1. The Sun
2. The Moon
3. Iris and pupil of an eye
4. Eggs

There may be round flowers and fruits,
too, but their roundness is malleable,
rarely flawless. Eggs are impractically
perfect. Useless against this world

of vicissitude. We might define vicissitude:

1. A hard surface
2. Gravity
3. Any combination 1 & 2

So I suspect the birds bring something
back from the Sun—something ethereal,
celestial. Something necessarily resembling
orbits and epicycles. Hence, eggs.

Now, I’ve already considered (you may have
as well) that reptiles also bear eggs, so that
birds and lizards are somehow akin.
May I suggest this as another instance of

“as above, so below”—that reptiles
borrowed the egg from birds,
who received it from the sky. But reptiles
don’t know how to care for this gift.

They abandon their eggs—afraid
of what they’ve done—afraid, perhaps,
because they’ve brought these symbols
of the Sun,
             unawares,
                         into the cold
of the dark places they prefer.

All poetry and supplementary material: copyright 2020 by Joshua Alan Sturgill