Saturday, April 12, 2014

The Egg

Odilon Redon's The Egg, 1885

"I couldn't take it one more minute,
all that walking around on eggshells,"
she said, and it's a thing I didn't get
until the crunch of eggshells filled
my very own ears. If you think it's
unpleasant to walk barefoot over a
dirty kitchen floor, imagine: crunch,
crunch, crunch, and not just through
part of your house, but everywhere
you go, through all your life: crunch.
I hope it's a thing you never get,
never wake up wondering: whatever
happened to the egg, anyway? And
how can I ever hope to fix that egg
when all the king's horses and men,
collectively, didn't stand a chance?

**writing in community, for the first time, with Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

6 comments:

  1. They are sharp - I've been there. This is a great commentary poem on the frustrations of trying to keep it all together - both physically AND mentally! Welcome to the Garden :)

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  2. Yum! I just had a boiled egg for breakfast today!

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  3. Oh this sums up so many seasons of my life walking on egg shells. ugh. You capture the sensory aspect of the physical eggshells, and transfer it well to the figurative. I cringe either way at the thought.

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  4. I am still trying to determine if walking on egg shells is a good thing - if it limits negative behavior until they become strong enough to control it? I really, really liked this on a lot of levels Brandee! To me, these egg shells represent boundaries - the trick is timing - when to put the boundaries firmly in place - not wanting little souls to break. Oh,yes - I definitely feel like a good coffee conversation to hear your thoughts on this - would be fun and insightful! You know - the house behind me is for sale! LOL - Wishing you whole and healthy boundaries this week, sweet friend!

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  5. I must walk on egg shells all the time. Do I? Or don't I? Do they know? Or not. Do I care? Yes/No/Maybe? Should I just...say? Or not? Egg shells are the bane of my existence.

    Peace <3
    Jay

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  6. Clever! I hate walking barefoot through a dirty house,but I love how you compare that to walking through life, sometimes as if on egg shells.

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