Re: [ZESTPoets] The Bomb

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 05:18:44 -0700

Lillian's poem, and the love poems, made me look for this series of poems inspired by a photograph seen in the paper last year, of a dead child's hand.

 

FOUR HANDS

  

1)

My hand, held out to you,

Is turned up, cupped

Not like a beggar’s, to receive,

But to contain: not empty,

But filled with love.

I only offer

This handful of love,

Constantly replenished.

Take it. Take more.

It’s all yours.

  

2)

The pool, curved and cupped

Like an upturned hand,

At night holds the sleepy sky

Under a wrinkled satin sheet.

This pool offers a loving embrace

That makes me think of you

As it enfolds me – except that

You have not become so intimate,

And still I wait for your embrace

And must be content with the pool.

 

3)

Now there is another kind:

Not cupped, offering life,

But cupped to hold blood.

The hand of war

Is turned down to oppress,

Sideways to strike,

The hand filled with death, 

And the fierce joy of killing.

 

4)

Flies simmer and sing

Over pooled blood,

Above bloodless bloated bodies.

A child’s face looks out

From the tumbled earth,

Sightless, submerged in soil,

A praying hand extended

Wears a living glove

Of flies singing their praises

Of the hand of death. But first,

Before I bury you decently

And cover you from the flies,

Let me take your last picture,

That we may not forget

That small dead hand.

 

Jane Bhandari


 

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