Cracking the Shell

The chick sat in the egg.
Walls so soft and pure.
His whole wide world,
oh, so close and near.

He’d simply spend his days,
watching the light change,
upon the walls of his home,
gold to silver was the range.

The chick was content
in the ways of his world,
until one fated day,
he started to hear

the chirps of gold,
and the hum of silver,
echoes from beyond
the walls of his shelter.

The chick soon began
to ponder, to wonder,
if there could truly be more;
for fear his heart did shudder.

A world unknown!
A world untold!
But if indeed it was there,
it was his only true home:

having held the egg,
which held the chick,
what lay beyond must be
where he truly lived.

For days and days
the chick tossed and turned,
deciding if he dared
to destroy his simple world.

A world he knew,
within which he grew
accustomed to the ways
of nothing ever new.

If he did indeed
dare to go beyond,
he had no way to know
he would remain in the arms;

in the love of the golden song
and the lullaby of the silver,
the world he’d come to love,
but craved to know better.

The chick then decided
he’d better first try
to see if he could crack
the walls known to his eyes.
Driven by the knowing
he’d truly rather die
than live a life of shadow,
a life made up of lies.

So, the chick began to peck
at the walls of his home,
all he’d ever loved,
all he’d ever known.

All for a shot to know
if something laid beyond,
the familiar embrace
of pale silver and gold.

And with his first peck
a circle broke through,
his world flooded with
a shade of gold so true.

So bright! So warm!
It was unlike anything;
so beautiful and true
he, too, began to sing.

Hannah Arin is a junior at Pitzer College pursuing a double major in religious studies and philosophy.