Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Kathy CoffeyNovember 16, 2009

The birds of the hands:
feathery fingers, arms
arched in parentheses.
Breathing in rhythm,
a forest of branches,
a pod of dolphins,
steel-spined camels:
“we can be anything.”

The body a playground:
swings, loops, slides
winged postures like stars
yoga dance as of language
freed from stodgy syntax.

Breath crests; wave
spills its liquid silver.
Toes sculpt commas,
punctuate the sentence’s
coiled energy, verb-driven
to the quiet pool of rest,
curled in balls like children.
Stillness hushes
eloquence: sweet period. 

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

As we grapple with fragmentation, political polarization and rising distrust in institutions, a national embrace of volunteerism could go a long way toward healing what ails us as a society.
Kerry A. RobinsonApril 18, 2024
I forget—did God make death?
Renee EmersonApril 18, 2024
you discovered heaven spread to the edges of a max lucado picture book
Brooke StanishApril 18, 2024
The joys and challenges of a new child stretched me in ways I couldn’t have imagined.
Jessica Mannen KimmetApril 18, 2024