The Ancient Egg

“Here ye the lay of the ancient egg

     Within the cold dank room;

Packed safe away in box or keg

     To sound the buyer’s doom.

Long years ago I dropped to earth,

     So long I mind them not;

When I was taken, at my birth

     By greedy hands and hot.

“Aye, from my mother was I stole,

     Who could not help herself,

And placed within a darkened hole,

     Upon a pantry shelf.

Then was I carted to the store

     And traded there for tea;

Surrounded by a hundred more

     Of more or less degree.

“Then was I crated for the town

     The town so far away;

And then the train came thund’ring down,

     And I rode night and day.

Aye, night and day I bowled along

     Upon the rails of steel;

The journey it seemed ages long,

     And useless our appeal.

“Sidetracked we waited night and day,

     To leave our prison cell;

One died heart-broke upon the way,

     And were unfit to smell.

Then we were taken, one by one,

     And placed within a tomb

Where never shines the noonday sun,

     Where all is chill and gloom.

“Ah! Frozen to the core are we,

     We cannot move or speak;

Each day much less of life we see,

     Each day we grow more weak.

Old age has crept has crept upon my brow,

     The frost of years is mine.

What is my fate eons from now

     I cannot well opine.

“If someone breaks me by and by,

     And finds I am not good,

Assail me not, helpless am I;

     I’ve done the best I could.

This is the lay of the ancient egg,

     That lies in the cold of snow;

Be patient, be fair with it, I beg,

     Because it has had no show.

Sept. 23, 10