The teachers spent a morning
Sliding pastel eggs in Johnson grass
Or under dead logs in the quiet woods,
Then unleashed scores of us
Armed with baskets and determination.
We walked the dusty mile
In total disarray,
then trampled new grass,
Now minty green,
And tore through brown, spidery leaves.
The one foil-wrapped egg
Would fetch fifty cents and
The envy of all,
so we scrambled and poked,
dug and dreamed
bare hands muddy and cold
hearts filled with dread that
we wouldn’t be the one,
that the silver egg
would elude us again.
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3 comments:
We played this game in Elementary School. In my unorganized third grade someone sprinkled money across the playground. A girl, sitting on the monkey bars so we couldn't stop her, shredded the dollar bill she found, saying the money was a curse from the devil. A few of us tried to puzzle the shreds back together.
In fourth and fifth grade the silver egg eluded me. In sixth grade I made sure that I would be the one. As the class prepared for the hunt, and listened to Mrs. Work describe the rules. I scanned the grounds for the spot that would be most likely to hold the plastic egg. When we were unleashed, I ran immediately to the spot, stuck my hand in and pulled out the egg. People complained they hadn't even gotten out of their starting block. I don't remember the prize, maybe it was everyone else's disappointment.
I would love to know where that little girl is today. And there YOU are, still solving problems related to Mother Earth.
About time people started back into the discussion, albeit Easter eggs don't do that much for me. I always thought the mythology of Easter was rather wimpy (the bunny stuff) which is particularly ironic in light of the unremitting suffering that is associated with Good Friday....
Actually, I must confess that I see the resurrection aspect of Easter as mythological as well. It is true on a deep emotional and archetypal level, but not representative of a factual event. NOw, I'm sure someone is prepared to challenge me on that!
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