Map
Look at
your open palm,
how the branches
fork off into
feathers;
so many rivers,
so many cracks
in the earth
of your life,
the map of
your world,
how it looked
just before
you took flight.
P.S. — How could I have forgotten to link to dVerse Open Link Night, which I’ve been enjoying these past few Tuesdays? Lots of great poets there — please go enjoy!
Marilyn Rauch Cavicchia 
really nice…the rivers and cracks of your life…our hands do tell much of us you know….and like the taking flight at the end as well…nice…
Thank you! The lift-off at the end really wanted to happen.
This is lovely. So much in such a small space: the palm of one’s hand.
Thank you! I tried to push it to go a little longer, but it wanted to be a small poem, which I guess does make sense.
I like your cartographic exploration of something so often overlooked.
Thanks, Anna!
I’ve looked a my hands a million times and never thought about them as a topic. Excellente! Enjoyed in much.
Thanks very much, Henry!
Brava!
Thanks, complynn!
Nice wings …I like the character in the hands ~
Very lovely – the flight also frees us from the map! k.
Thank you! I wasn’t exactly sure what I meant by that image, but I went with it, anyway.
Yesss! I love the hand as both geographical and avian–and how both of those metaphors fit in the same small poem.
Thanks, Jennifer! It wanted to stay kind of spare. It was the first one I’d written in a week. Still finding equilibrium after NaPoWriMo and a desire to take a huge break immediately after.
I totally enjoyed this look at the map in the palm, the palm in the hand, the way the reading does or doesn’t shape our lives. I tried to follow to the site you linked, but it truly goes nowhere! Please repost it. Thank you.
Thanks, Susan! And I’m sorry about the broken link. I fixed it just now. Open Link Night is a lot of fun — it’s every Tuesday, so I hope you’ll check it out.