Nearness
       

Make me as nail and finger
then cross of nails through
hands with fingers.
That's not the love I want,
I say to my feet who walk
on water with storm around
me. My friends watch from
the boat. I watch my friends
from the boat. Their toes
are clammy. Notice her toes
are clammy when I visit
an other and the other takes
me with the hush of want
some boy wished for as his
mother slept. Some girl now
wishing with her own voice
I hear only years from then.
Now hearing what I hadn't:
clavicles, sternum, coccyx.
Soon I'll hear crow's feet.
From the church book water
storms from the priest's mouth
with the hope we'll hear it too.
I hear children jumping into
puddles. Hoping they're mine.
Hoping their clammy toes
make some other nearness.

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Copyright © 2022 Tawanda Mulalu All rights reserved
from Salt Hill
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission