Slim Fingers
read by salli shepherd
suitable for light domestic tasks
only: prepare French toast, pour fruit juice
smooth the errant strands of someone's hair
solve puzzles even when no one's there
arrange blossoms taking air and sun
upon a flaking kitchen windowsill
reliable, although they flutter --
unbroken to the carding comb
the canning jar, the milking stool
the rhythm of the churning butter
but doing everything a nurse can
in full accord with mindful mothering
unequaled when the meet hour has come
for caring ministry in service
to ancient customs rediscovered
time and time again through the process
of long movements in phase with lunar
necessities -- thus proving God is just
hardly competent to set a trap
but nonetheless successful, able
to capture a heart responsive to
their timeless cues, and capable of
making use of almost anything
a man brings to the table they have set
intent on breaking night's reclusive
grip, brew tea till Matins' filaments
restore order to lauded mornings
then light the climb to high afternoons
with tapers that will flicker warning
if tenebrous delusions rise too soon
Slim fingers are the nest where fertile eggs are warmed;
they seldom rest or miss a stitch, and never harm.
© Björn Vaughn
C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series,
The Victory Garden. His poems have appeared in Quantum Leap,
Candelabrum, and dozens of publications in the U.S. An e(chap)book he
compiled in 2007 can be read on the website of The New Formalist. "Who" first appeared in The Raintown Review.
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