The Egg

What does it mean? Who placed it there? Why is it white? Why is it fair? There was an egg upon a table There was ribbon, there was lawn There was sunlight on the photograph There was breakfast being born There was nothing in the oval There was nothing in the shell Till the caption found an angle And the angle travelled well It sat there being harmless It sat there being small It had no stated programme It had no view at all Then somebody enlarged it Then somebody drew lines Then somebody said look at this Then everybody signed The egg did nothing The replies did everything It sat there being oval Till the sides came in The egg said nothing The thread knew what it meant By noon it was the nation By three it was an event One side saw tradition One side saw decay One side saw a coded threat In how it faced the day One side saw a family One side saw a throne One side saw a signal In the angle it was shown The egg remained an egg there A risky thing to be When everyone needs evidence Of what they already see The object had no politics Until the room supplied them The egg had no position So the sides stood up beside it The egg did nothing The replies did everything It sat there being oval Till the sides came in The egg said nothing The thread knew what it meant By noon it was the nation By three it was an event Here we see the curvature Suggesting certain themes Here we note the placement In the wider field of dreams Here the lighting tells us something Here the basket makes it worse Here the ribbon may be innocent But innocence is cursed Experts note the whiteness Critics note the shine Supporters note the critics And the critics note the line No one asked the object No one let it rest The egg was made a witness For the case already dressed Decode it Defend it Frame it Condemn it Share it Explain it Load it Contain it By morning there were columns By lunchtime there were charts By evening there were people Putting arrows through its parts The centre was symbolic The border was obscene The shadow showed nostalgia The gloss meant something mean A child could have painted it A clerk could have approved it A camera could have caught it And the feed could have removed it It was not about the egg now It had never been about the egg It was everything around it On a very little peg The egg did nothing The replies did everything It sat there being oval Till the sides came in The egg said nothing The thread knew what it meant By noon it was the nation By three it was an event The egg did nothing But everything was read The shell was only fragile Till the meaning hit its head The egg said nothing The room supplied the speech Nothing is too little When the sides are out of reach It sat there being oval With no view of its own What does it mean? Who placed it there? Why is it white? Why is it fair? The object did nothing The replies did everything