Messages From Carrie
Poem - Hands
August 30th, 2006
Hands,
Small admirable hands,
Delicate strong fingers
A woman's hands
You move them over the keys like water
Rapids over rocks
Under. over and around
Tracing the shape and pattern
Of sound and silence
Like a lovers brow
Like a line of coke
Or a question mark.
The inevitable pull of the river,
Empties into the unfathomable depths of the sea,
Opening like white wings,
Folding in like a fan.
And so I ask you
"Did you know?"
"Did you see?"
"The last time you stepped into the river,
When you placed your finger in your mouth
And then held it out to test the direction of the winds,
That every time you step into the current
It is a different body of water?"
This the truth of time,
The consolation and wonder
Of movement and gravity.
I know this bit of sand and rock
For many times I've also waded in like a pilgrim
For this was there I launched a little boat
Made out of leaves and twigs
And honestly, I do not know where it went
Because it was made of earthbound things
Only meant to float for a season.
Yet, I cannot stop myself from time to time
Searching the bottom for little remembrances
Hidden and not fully carried away.
"Did you know
That time when you pointed
To the place just above and to the left of my breastbone,
I heard and saw and held.
Something you'd thought was a bitter secret?"
You looked at me from the corner of your beautiful eye
And asked "Are my hands still and yet so small?"
Carrie Newcomer August 2006