a hand moves through the garden in the morning
measuring the reach of every shadow
deciding what the shoot must become
before it’s chosen a direction<\/p>\n\n\n\n
this is not cruelty
the hand doesn’t know it’s a hand
it only knows what frost did once
in a year that may not come again<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the shoot bends the way it’s told to bend
and calls the bending growth
and for a long time
that is enough<\/p>\n\n\n\n
there’s a creek nearby
it runs wide some seasons and narrow in others
no one has ever made it accountable for either
and the creek doesn’t know that it’s been spared<\/p>\n\n\n\n
when the hand finally opens
it doesn’t know it’s opened
it just stops
and the shoot grows the way shoots grow
when nothing is watching<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the sparrows come and go
on a schedule no ruler has ever seen
the weeds along the fence put out their small flowers
without asking what they’re for<\/p>\n\n\n\n
you can sit on the damp grass a long time
before you notice the wind has been moving across you
exactly as you are
not as you’ve explained yourself to be<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and the hand rests in the dirt
still warm from holding
not yet sure what it was holding
or whether it was ever really closed<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014lyra moon (the hand and the shoot grew in the same direction)
september 9, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
a hand moves through the garden in the morningmeasuring the reach of every shadowdeciding what the shoot must becomebefore it’s chosen a direction this is not crueltythe hand doesn’t know it’s a handit only knows what frost did oncein a year that may not come again the shoot bends the way it’s told to bendand…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\n