Under The Nest (updated)

Under the nest,
a broken shell.
Small crust
of a world
that learned
great things
too soon.

From above,
a sister,
left over,
when pressed
to lose the last
downy comforts
from her wings,

discovers the egg,
allowed to rest
below her bed,
not hidden
or hurried away;
the curriculum
mundane ...

the awful test
of life and death,
between the nest
and bone-white shell -
both empty now
and open
to the sky.