In examining her simple subject, Bohince expands the scope of an egg. The poem’s title, “The Egg of Anything” lets the egg become the root and symbol of large and small images: “sun and moon mixed,” or “little o / in hope or love.” Bohince’s descriptions radiate through her abstract comparisons and playful word choices because the poem’s subject matter is so concrete, tangible, and familiar. The homey, comforting egg is like a catalyst, undoing its own simplicity under Bohince’s care and attention. As the poem addresses the state of the egg over time, it reminds us that progress does not always mean growth in size and complexity. We can also find progress in attention to small glories. We can progress from “uh-huh” to “yes” when we attend to the little worlds before us, captured in an egg.
-Erin Griffin Collum
“The Egg of Anything,” by Paula Bohince
is holy, molten in its calcium
cup, sun and moon mixed, hot
in its prison, cells’
incentive to fuse firing, no
second to loiter, calling
now to a predator’s jaw. How
the genetic vow is kept.
Jellied not-yet,
hard as thought becoming
belief, little o
in hope or love, un-
umbilical one, cast into air,
mother gone, father
long gone, uh-huh goes your
heart, that dummy yes said from
a soul agog at such splendor.