Poetry by Clare Best

To candle an egg is to examine its contents by holding it between the eye and a source of light originally a candle, nowadays a torch. If the egg has been fertilised and a chick is growing inside, the embryo sac appears shadowy, with a contrast between this and the translucence of the air-pocket or remaining space. The candler decides, having looked at each egg, whether to keep it in the incubator for hatching.

Candling turkey eggs

This spring morning in a dusty shed
I weigh Christmas.
In my left hand I cup each egg,
my right shines a torch to the shell

in search of the sign,
the dark embryo sac
next to the cave of air. I imagine
an egg tooth set to chip out, wet feathers

waiting. This speckled egg's dented, spoiled
I candle it anyway, a trial. Focus,
pick at the crack. Quick crimson shock;
bloodshot jelly

behind the membrane, domed eyes
on the chick's head,
miniature quills. The raw
transparent pulsing of unready lungs.