The Future Of Hands Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKILMNAIOPQ RSTUVIJAW VJXAYZA2B2C2J D2TE2AF2G2 H2Q I2 J2K2 IL2SM2 N2M2JVAXQAO2P2MQ2R2S 2| All winter | A |
| The trees held up their silent hives | B |
| As if they mattered | C |
| But on one main street of bars and lights | D |
| I watched a woman who had begged for days | E |
| Throw all the coins back insulted | F |
| Into the crowd | G |
| And then each cheap stone on her necklace | H |
| As if they were confetti | I |
| At a bitter wedding | J |
| And then her stained blouse | K |
| I smiled then at her dignity | I |
| But when the night came | L |
| With only its usual stars to show | M |
| She was applauded and spat on | N |
| Or those passing stepped around her | A |
| Avoiding her body | I |
| As if it had become private or pure | O |
| When the police arrived | P |
| Sniveling about the cold day she had chosen | Q |
| To strip | R |
| Her face was a brown jewel | S |
| And I knew the hands | T |
| Of the police would have to close now | U |
| On this body abandoned to wind | V |
| Just as her hands closed finally | I |
| On wind that would have nothing | J |
| To do with her | A |
| And never had | W |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| I know that wind | V |
| Had nothing to do with longing | J |
| I have seen that even in the eyes | X |
| Of girls across a lunch counter | A |
| A desire to be anywhere that wasn't | Y |
| Texas and waiting on tables | Z |
| Their eyes making a pact | A2 |
| With the standing staring wheat | B2 |
| About to be turned back into the black soil | C2 |
| That spreads everywhere when no one is watching | J |
| - | |
| And writing this | D2 |
| I stare at my hands | T |
| Which are the chroniclers of my death | E2 |
| Which pull me into this paper | A |
| Each night as onto a bed of silk sheets | F2 |
| And the woman gone | G2 |
| - | |
| After two hours of work | H2 |
| I do not know if there ever was a woman | Q |
| - | |
| I watch the flies buzz at the sill | I2 |
| - | |
| - | |
| - | |
| Or if I sleep | J2 |
| I must choose between two dreams | K2 |
| - | |
| In one of them my hands move calmly | I |
| Over a woman's waist or lift | L2 |
| In speech the way birds rise or settle | S |
| Over a marsh over nesting places | M2 |
| - | |
| In the other dream | N2 |
| There are no nesting places | M2 |
| The birds are white and scavenging | J |
| They lift negligently over the town in wind | V |
| Like paper like the death of paper | A |
| They dip and rise | X |
| As if there had never been a heaven | Q |
| Beneath them it is summer | A |
| It is the same town I was born in | O2 |
| And in its one bar | P2 |
| The man selling illegal human hair from Mexico | M |
| The hair of brides mixed | Q2 |
| With the hair of the dead | R2 |
| Argues all day over the price | S2 |
Larry Levis
(1)
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About The Future Of Hands
The Future Of Hands is a poem by Larry Levis. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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