an Egg a Day

Ova Aves, Unknown, 2001, colour print, 24 x 20 in

We all must come from somewhere. Out of the blackness of time,

moon-faced, our complexions pocked by the catastrophe of beginnings.

Why not believe as did the ancient marsh dwellers?

The sacred ibis spoke the gods into being,

laying an egg from which the sun burst forth.

The rest is history. Or so said Herodotus.

It was the jet-black ibises, with their hooked beaks

down-turned like the nibs of pens, who gave us writing.

One story is as good as another.

We all must come from somewhere,

shining out of the blackness of time.

Believe what you must.

Photograph by Thaddeus Holownia. Poem by Harry Thurston. 

From the catalogue Ova Aves published by Anchorage Press, 2011