Boiled Eggs

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