Cantilevers Poems | Examples

Hands

I should hate to lose them in a freakish accident.
They have brought me so much pleasure
wandering as they do like shell-less crabs
between the waymarks of self.
I love to make them dance like windblown leaves.

Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by hands,
he understood that if you could capture them
you could shape cathedrals out of air & water,
they are often more eloquent than words.

I like to turn them over, as I would turn over
a page of scripture.
They are almost weightless.
every ounce of flesh takes the strain
working cantilevers, pulling ropes
lifting them above gravity.
Shamelessly they openly appear naked
in public

When I recall how they have been abused
I ask them for forgiveness.
At times, I want to clean them
like seabirds caught in an oil slick.

Then I remember that they are my art,
also the mute witnesses
of my many fumbled catches,
yet they wash me every day
as I wash them.