human condition

a study of hands

it is 10:06 pm on a thursday night

and if i stare at the veins

in my hand for long enough,

its like i can see the blood

pumping through them in real time

almost pulsing under the harsh

LED light that sits on my desk

directly to my right and i am

reminded that is what alive

looks like

that the blue hue under my eyes

that matches the thin dull lines

running between my knuckles

and the limp way my fingers 

rest against the plain grey metal

of my desk is not an 

accurate representation of what life is

as it swells through my body

i am reminded that the way my 

palm falls open limply in front of me

does not hold a candle to the way

my heart falls open willingly, to 

anyone who asks for it, and

the sickly green that washes over

the lines in my skin from the 

color changing lamp in the corner

does not illustrate the way

my favorite color of green

(forest, emerald, olive, sage)

smoothes over the very idea of

existance as it subsists

the numbess in the bones 

of my wrist and the pads

of my fingers, as my 

hand lies open in front of me

will never leave its plague-like

mark on the spine of my favorite

book, or the shoulder of my 

best friend

it is 10:37 pm on a thursday night

and as i stare at my hand,

watching the veins throb and my

fingers wrist arm shoulder chest body

beat back to life, i am reminded

that this is what alive looks like

(almost as if i am living it in real time)

Reviews

[Pete]

was immediately drawn by the title. quite the palm reading. very captivating and telling - perhaps of the condition of a resuscitated heart. very deep and emotive ... :)

[John the Baptist]

Quite a somber piece here. I think the key lines are the one where the speaker mentions a heart that falls open willingly, and in the last stanza, where it is stated that the hand "will never leave its plague-like mark." I believe this person has sustained some deep emotional wounds, probably in the area of relationships. Not a happy poem, but an engrossing one.