held within this shell, counting the moments, the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, sometimes even the years. Waiting for what? The perfect moment, surely it will arrive! Wanting it, for seeing what will be, yet still feeling trapped and enclosed. I know what I need to escape this shell,but I cant get it on my own. I must sit and wait, the counting of time is all thats left to me. Whats this now? Not just trapped but being buried alive, then drowned in some solution. Help! help! what are you doing stop it. Why are you ruining my chance to break free?

Quiet now darkness all around, why did you throw me away? What's this?, something is odd, no not in this dark place, not here! This is not right its not anything like I imagined. The shell that's my protection is breaking away. I can feel myself slowly falling away. The feeling is changing now, it feels as though I am being streched beyond my capacity. It will surely break me into pieces. It has made me so tired, I must sleep.

I awake to bright light, and the feeling of water falling down upon me. Something is moveing me forward and backward and from side to side. It has a cooling effect, the light however is so warm! Between them they dry the water from me. I look around to find I have broken free from my shell. The forseen has come to pass,how long was it I waited? It seems only a little while but somewhere I lost track.

The flowing brown of my skin, streching over the fiber within. The spreading greenes of my new vale, I have become the mighty oak. I will grow straight and tall as The Creator intended me to be. With glee I will await the day when seeds too will come from me.

                            Samuel D. Taylor