Poem Prompt: Orb

For the first part: Unknown

I shook the bottle.
I heard a small rattling.
I looked inside, and couldn't see much,
just the rolled-up paper
with 'u n k n o w n' scribbled on it.
Plenty of things were unknown?
Which one of those things
was this note referring to?

The was a solid, spongelike stopper in the mouth
I pulled on it, to no avail
I decided a bit of extra muscle
could have yanked the thing off.
I thought of my parents,
both of whom would scold me for taking it.
I thought of Junior,
too young to even comprehend this.
Then I thought of Dennis,
who had moved out around a moon cycle ago
and most definitely had the strength.
So I went to Dennis.

Rugged and starved,
I could see that Dennis was struggling to survive
on his own now.
He looked happy to see me
and didn't even look at the bottle at first.
I explained my dilemma
and he scolded me,
as expected.
He then took all the muscle he had built from hunting
and pulled the stopper clean off.
His finger dug into the bottle's thin neck
and pulled the paper out.
He frowned, then showed me the blank note.
'u n k n o w n' was all that was there.

Removing the paper did reveal a small blue orb.
It was too large to fit in the nozzle
but too small to break the glass.
Dennis looked just as confused as I was.
He shook the bottle and tried,
carefully as he could,
to crack it open.
After a few tries,
Dennis got frustrated and tossed me the bottle.

I remained on the shore all day.
Throwing the bottle,
stepping on it,
driving a stick into it.
Nothing was working
and I spent my entire day there.
As I looked up and saw the pinks of the sunset,
I sighed.
Mama would certainly be upset
and I had achieved nothing.
I was tired of trying to open it.
It was just glass.

I set it down beside an ant that was crawling by
and picked a nearby stone.
I gauged the weight in my hand
as I watched the ant inch away.
When it was gone
I took all my frustration
and smashed the glass.

Nothing.
It stayed intact.
But, I did see a small crack
on the orb inside.
The blue became brighter
and it seemed to somewhat glow
I ran to tell Dennis.