Poem | The Hand

It was stamped all over me,

a hand, two hands;

gigantic and red and smothering.

Stamped, again and again,

with a force that made my skin convex,

pushed me into the shape.

My cells pulling, trying to avoid it,

but thinner skin will bruise easier.

You slipped your hand into the hand,

began to wear it as a puppet,

acting like it had a life of its own.

But you touched me still,

caressed me with the same look in your eyes,

the same taste of compliments dripping off your tongue in the shower.

I guess sometimes you’re left, sometimes you’re right,

sometimes it was the hand.

It must have been,

because here I am still bruised and moulded.

A push from my elastin, a push from your hand, in the hand,

a pressure too hard that maybe I became it after

it touched, you touched, it touched again.

Then you look at me in disgust when I am it,

when you can’t see me as anything other

than the hand.