Day 21: Yellow Egg, "The Middle of Me and What Lodges There," a poem by Dawn Trook

This egg was hidden by the Van Bebber family near a statue at the Merced County Office of Education on 13th Street between M & N Streets.

Here's the poem in preview:

The Middle of Me and What Lodges There

When the shine is stripped away,

I’m rough and wrong,

wanting comfort from faultlines.

The box of lies

kept in a box by my bed,

the backs of each pretty

pictures they hide behind.

This one’s a bird,

this one a song. It weaves between

my mean places, making me

not all bad, not all need.

I’m song and bird, star and varnish,

soap bubbles in a child’s eyes—

I’m all this, and the ensuing break.

I’m not all bad,

and I’m not all please.

My heart’s full of bird chatter—full of gift

and fears. My heart’s a jar of stars,

hoarding light, making night shadows.

My heart’s stuffed with soap and breathe.