Dilys Wood
Thinking Hands
The pads of fingers stroke the page -
as doctors raise a vein for the needle,
fingers thumb awareness, located somewhere,
search for a new combination
or a memory.
The pads, slightly drumming, draw an image to the front.
It brings a clenched-fist pain over the naive heart.
Last winter, fingers held a sponge,
closely traced the knitted bones of her last face -
It never became a skull in the earth,
but only in the mind,
as the fire at Honor Oak
calcined it quickly to light stones.
Now with summer-brown hands
I bring back her dying face,
darkened to an ochre pigment
by disturbed chemistry.
My hardened stub-fingers recall
her rosy hands of lady-like shape,
and pressure of her firm, monitory finger.
As I also press my index on the page,
in the pause before new thought,
it gives me pause.
Page(s) 66
magazine list
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