Common Denominator

 

his hands were empty when he died
over his body and through his eyes
to this, to this perhaps a surprise
his demise
compromise
he doesn’t picture how empty
he
will look when there is no more
blood coursing,
body tersing,
student cursing,
why does it smell so bad
identity
identify
tags
lover
sinner
blood thinners
wheel spinner
a life illustrated with flamboyant colors
of money made
and pages spent
heart unkempt
life of contempt
without knowing without wanting
without growing without hauting
of lines to continue
beyond finite
beyond               finale
beyond               fhysical
it always happens to the others
then cry another mother
and this is not my brother
hands to hold
hands to throw
              baseballs
              bullets
hands to grow
hands to know
              the woman that he loved
hands to cook
hands that look
with rupturing ambivalence
            skyward
                         ring around the rosies
                         pocket full of poesies
                                       ashes
                                                     ashes
                         his                                   we
                           hands                 all
                             were                            fall
                                     empty                             down
when he died

Esther Kim, Class of 2010