the hatched egg

the hatched egg

does the hatched egg
exist?

once
it was all egg.

then

its confines harbored
a being
that in days
instructed by genes
used its new beak
to escape.

so
is
a hatched egg
an egg?
part of it
walked away as if on stilts.

the rest of it
is dried albumen
and calcium deposit.

shell,
not egg, plus
chicken,
not egg.

remnants
of egg
and a living,
fuzzy
miracle.

but there is
in the miraculous human mind
such a thing as a hatched egg.

the hatched egg is Renewal.
the hatched egg is The Resurrection
and The Life.

we fuzzy chicks,
recently renewed
and sticky with the amniotic drippings
of what harbored us,
stilt our new way out
and into the world.

sometimes we save our shells
in our scrapbooks.