My Egg Choice - Keith Gaboury

White or brown? 
If my white skin picks white eggs, 
surely I’m suffering
an historical flare-up
to America’s racial flavor.
Between caged and free-
range brown, I grab
the $5.99 free-range.
I'm looking to eat
eggs born from unshackled mothers.
 
Out of Duboce Triangle’s Safeway, 
I trot across Market, skip down Dolores.
All the while, I clutch my egg choice
like twelve brown babies.
Yet as I propel over the Muni tracks,
a M train nearly squishes me
and my babies. I escape
with all twelve yolks
still encased
within their proud brown shells.
 
At home, I open the egg
carton’s confinement 
to crack three into a black skillet
and gobble up my babies 
I once protected as a parent
now scrambled in a free-range 
rapture, a rapture 
hot on a plate. Nestled in yellow, 
a small brown shell 
gapes at my breakfast eyes.

Keith Gaboury earned a MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College. Kelsay Books published The Cosmos is Alive in 2023 and Falkenberg Press published Still Human in 2025. Keith lives in Oakland, California. Learn more at keithgaboury.com and keithgaboury.me.