Shake an egg:
if it rattles,
there is something
to be won.
Hold an egg up
to the sun:
if a shadow,
there is something
growing there, there
it is: olive
eye and inept
wing-
stubs.
Drop an egg
in a glass
of water:
watch it rise,
determine
its symbols
accordingly.
Soft body on
soft body:
tunnel of feather
and flap: neck
twist and back
bend: bell for
wedding, or
if a train
unravels from
the whites it must
mean
you will go,
you will go.
Fleet of swans: find
the one swan in
disguise. He will
not be denied,
he has never
been denied. Wing
over breast as
if to caress
with its hollow
bones.
To determine
the sex of
the child inside
you must rest an
egg between
your breasts and
wait: careful not
to break
it. Wake
with a cocks-comb
brushing against
you, egg
tooth rutting
on your chest:
the line continues
through space, and time
is yours to buy.
Go to market with the egg
in a little basket: keep it safe, feel it wriggle
as it slips its discerning eye over the meat cuts, the silk
bolts, determine yes
or no, or
oh, I think I’ll pass
for today. Pass by
the stalls with an egg
in your bust,
Feel it pulse
as you pulse,
and if it is wrong?
a girl to straddle
two worlds, as if the
water were
just a means
of her going,
as if the wind
were made to shift
her this way, or
that way, as if
she were made to make
men bloody their swords
at the sight of her.
You can have it all
and more
than you can handle.
You deflated
as they dropped:
two eggs
and four
perfect specimens.
None shall have more
than you.
if it rattles,
there is something
to be won.
Hold an egg up
to the sun:
if a shadow,
there is something
growing there, there
it is: olive
eye and inept
wing-
stubs.
Drop an egg
in a glass
of water:
watch it rise,
determine
its symbols
accordingly.
Soft body on
soft body:
tunnel of feather
and flap: neck
twist and back
bend: bell for
wedding, or
if a train
unravels from
the whites it must
mean
you will go,
you will go.
Fleet of swans: find
the one swan in
disguise. He will
not be denied,
he has never
been denied. Wing
over breast as
if to caress
with its hollow
bones.
To determine
the sex of
the child inside
you must rest an
egg between
your breasts and
wait: careful not
to break
it. Wake
with a cocks-comb
brushing against
you, egg
tooth rutting
on your chest:
the line continues
through space, and time
is yours to buy.
Go to market with the egg
in a little basket: keep it safe, feel it wriggle
as it slips its discerning eye over the meat cuts, the silk
bolts, determine yes
or no, or
oh, I think I’ll pass
for today. Pass by
the stalls with an egg
in your bust,
Feel it pulse
as you pulse,
and if it is wrong?
a girl to straddle
two worlds, as if the
water were
just a means
of her going,
as if the wind
were made to shift
her this way, or
that way, as if
she were made to make
men bloody their swords
at the sight of her.
You can have it all
and more
than you can handle.
You deflated
as they dropped:
two eggs
and four
perfect specimens.
None shall have more
than you.
