Hands

Hands inside, the palms look young still.
See the lifelines there-though I cannot read them
and know not what they might foretell.

But on the back, deep purple veins stand out:
old hands have weathered but can delicately sense
the ground, the air and who is working near to me.

Sometimes when I sit, the hands close, palm to palm,
and fingers meeting in an arch, counterpoint the wish within
sending it further than hands can reach....

Drawing by Albrecht Dürer