Alabaster Egg

Leave it be,

the alabaster egg,

alluring as morning,

tenuous as rain.

Touch it

and the mother

will never return,

the chick consigned

to abandonment

and death,

she cursed

to a life of regret

and recrimination.

Only leave it be

and the chick

will one day burst

through, moist, dazed,

confused at the world,

uncertain who

to believe, unsure

why he has come,

not at all clear

what’s expected of him.