The Penguin & The Egg

Far up & away, where our largest myth guards,
the door to the underworld, below in the stars.
There resides a strange bird, who stands tall with pride,
above a small egg, that is growing in size.
A spiral of arms, he's swinging around,
His eye is aglow, and points his beak to the sound...
relic radiation, sometimes called snow,
& in it there sits an orb with a glow.
Undisturbed and in rest, as if something inside,
Six million across, in light years is wide!
And protector above, moves about in a fuss,
in a dance that's as old as the stars & the dust.
And at last when it hatches, in an epoch or two,
answering the question as they merge in the blue:
Which came first? Do we know? The egg or the bird?
They mutually emerged... the question's absurd!

*image of the Penguin (NGC 2936) and the Egg (NGC 2937) galaxies.
See the nasa.gov article here.

This original poem was featured in the first issue of our newsletter, The Liminal.