Praying Hands in Second-Hand Stores, Art Museums
Why the replica hands pressed palm to palm?
Do they rest in silence or film with dust?
Why art casts of hands pressed palm to palm?
Do they model life or cuff the hands’ lust?
Why tulips like hands pressed palm to palm?
Do the lobes gather or do they thrust?
Why moth wings like hands pressed palm to palm?
Do they eat there like sparrows or rust?
Why pressed hands? They bloom, live, burn. They trust.
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Jeffrey Beck is the recent winner of the Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Award, honorable mention winner of the Frank O'Hara Poetry Prize, and finalist in the Naugatuck River Review poetry award. His poetry has been published or will be published in Miramar, Writing Tomorrow, Worcester Review, Grey Sparrow Journal, I-70 Review, and other journals. He lived for nineteen years in Tennessee, while teaching at East Tennessee State University.
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