Katherine M. Clarke, “Consider the Fingers”

Amy Lowell Prize, selected by Toni Bee

Consider the Fingers
         With thanks to Aracelis Girmay
 
 
It starts with the brush of her fingers 
on mine as we reach for the check.
 
Later she touches my cheek, lays 
a hand on my neck until one stroke
 
opens me and she slides inside 
my life, helps me build a garden 
 
of pink geraniums, purple lobelia, 
alyssum and a spike of dracaena
 
in patio pots. After the hip replacement 
she waits for hours until I swim,
 
conscious again in my room to feel
her hand grasp my shoulder 
 
like a lifeguard lifting me out of the deep.  
She stays that summer until the night
 
she places one finger saying don’t move, 
kisses me    until I beg her 
 
never to leave again. When we marry
she slips a ring onto me moist 
 
from her palm and I promise forever.
The gold band has worn a groove 
 
into my finger. Her hands, cool on my hips,
assure me she’s got me as I struggle to stand.
 
Got me so close she can draw me 
to her instantly should I lose my balance,
 
cradle me against her to hold me up 
or gently, when it’s time, let me go. 


Katherine M. Clarke is a professor emeritus of Antioch University New England. She lives at the foot of Monadnock and often writes about loving women, living with a lifelong disability, and missing Canada. Her work has appeared in Breath and Shadow, Wordgathering, Northern New England Review, The New Verse News, and The Poets’ Touchstone.