Samuel Claiborne 
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                                                                                                Back to Poetry

                                                                                                My Hands (Amy)

                                                                                                My hands think for themselves
                                                                                                They trail down your hips
                                                                                                And fly up your spine
                                                                                                Becoming and blooming
                                                                                                Palms opening like mouths
                                                                                                Drinking in the tide of your brow

                                                                                                My fingers ache to talk to you
                                                                                                Circling in Sanskrit and Linear B
                                                                                                Incising and painting with nacre and indigo
                                                                                                Purling chains of lace

                                                                                                Embroidering torments of laments
                                                                                                They stalk your curves
                                                                                                Seeking that which sometimes rises when called
                                                                                                But cannot sustain inhabitance without blessings

                                                                                                They are aching to translate their ache
                                                                                                For all that is rising within you
                                                                                                Aching to prise your blood from your soil
                                                                                                They ache to hold it aloft
                                                                                                Your heart beating air into light