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Writer's pictureLiz Busby

“In a Nutshell” by Doug Staker

Updated: Oct 4

The greatest minds insist

That the universe began

In a walnut shell.


How long do you suppose that walnut

Sat in a bowl on God’s kitchen counter

Before he picked it up and cracked its shell?

Did God suspect its contents

The day he squeezed its plain, unremarkable facade?


I too am a plain, rough, wrinkled nut

Lost among the bushels.

Yet when the day should come

That I’m placed between the grips

And casually squeezed

Until I pop and splinter,

My natural resistance

Failing under pressure,

As sure as I’ll be that my world has ended,

Will not that be the day

That the long-compacted energy

Will burst, expand,

A blinding flash of light

Escape its shell –

The birth, the instigation

Of infinite, light-speed expansion?


If only nuts were not so fond

Of their minuscule darkness.



This piece was published in 2014 as part of the 3rd Annual Mormon Lit Blitz by the Mormon Lit Lab. Sign up for our newsletter for future updates.

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