JA18


Our hands:
Grandmother’s, mother’s, and mine.
The same topography:
Brown backs, blue veins, gold bands.
The same work:
Turn the hem, turn the page, turn the earth.
The same motion:
To arrange, to direct, to align.
The same language:
Refusal, dismissal, farewell.

Hold hands a little longer, she yours and you mine,
I hers for a circle: thus we intertwine,
Until our strength falters, we loosen our grasp,
And I, empty-handed and idle, am last.


JWB Rogers