Boiled Eggs
Yesterday I boiled a dozen
Brown eggs my friend
Brought from the food bank
Even when I had plenty
All the other eggs
Had not been boiled
Sitting quite happily
In their carton lounging
On the stove water heated
Like starting a small torch
To seal the edges of elastic
I might use in sewing a jockstrap
I wear the jockstrap from yesterday
While my eggs sit unboiled
In their carton with other eggs
Egg cartons are like jockstraps
When the water starts to roil
I prepare an ice water bath
To finish eggs outside their hot bath
I think about dipping my eggs
One by one the eggs jump in
To the boiling water dreaming hard
My timer starts counting ten minutes
My friend reads the book I gave her
I check the timer like I
Watch the pot boil that bubbles
Around the brown eggs
My jockstrap itches for a dip
Near the end of ten minutes
I watch the seconds drop off
The ends of the earth
Like ships scream into space
The bowl of ice water dances
With the ice and chilled water
In anticipation of having eggs
In its belly when turning a page
One by one I transfer eggs
From hot water to the stainless
Ice bath wondering If these eggs
Will shrink in their jockstrap carton
Much later the eggs still
In their shells go into
The refrigerator for tomorrow's
Breakfast Raisins and toasted bread
I scratch myself in a clean black
Jockstrap I sewed several
Weeks ago while dreaming
About my eggs being cool to love
Barry G. Wick
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