Hands

(John the Baptist)
Holy water spills back into the baptismal font;
These hands are not God's: the world they hold is too small,
Too perfect.

(Dust to Dust)
A line of charcoal fills the space on the page.
Black dust fills the negative space
Between steady fingers, and leaves traces of itself
on everything I touch.

(Apprentice)
He introduced himself-
professional to student.
Callused, strong, infinitely gentle--
like shaking hands with a cloud.

(Against the wall)
One clenched fist- remember, keep the thumb outside
White knuckles flush red,
Crack--
But do not break.

(Unique and Special)
Thin black gloves glitter
with sharp and deadly snow,
each curve and line of your palm
cast bright and cold in refracted white.

(Pop Culture Strikes Back, Election 2004 Style)
Spider Jerusalem raises a hand for democracy:
"Have you got thumbs? Show me your fucking thumbs!"
Way to go, humanity- next time, leave the voting to the monkeys.

(Sign Language)
The words are not nearly as interesting
As the fluttering butterfly dance of her hands
that accompanies them.

(You Not Me)
A multitude of rings send off enough sparks to blind;
But one is conspicuously absent;
The finger closest to the heart is bare.

(Nerves)
Steady voices and bright smiles
Are betrayed by the spastic twitch
Of hands and well chewed fingernails

(Friendship)
The world is a narrow place,
but warm.
Your hand in mine; our hands together
and nothing else.
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This is slightly edited from the original; the order and the titles have been changed, and a few lines were removed. Yes, I did hand it in with the Spider Jerusalem there. In the final edit, I'll drop that one and replace it with something less idiotic and obscure- this whole poem is about obscurity, really.

The "finger closes to the heart" in You Not Me refers to the ring finger; in the Russian Orthodox Church, the wedding ring goes on the ring finger of the right hand, because it was believed that there was a vein that ran directly from the heart through that finger. It's another bit of obscurity, but I always thought it was a charming concept, and a neat image.

Much as I know it needs work, this is still my favorite piece of writing from this semester thusfar. I enjoy little fragmented poem-thoughts, and I still think the basic idea behind this mess is a good one.