Monday, April 30, 2012

Fragile, Handle With Care



Some people can’t use the hands
hanging from the end of their arms
that opposable thumb and forefinger
are no advantage for normal life skills.

They can’t cook, garden or manipulate
small tools for surgery or needlework
lacking the dexterity of primates,
helpless for most manual work.
 
Their ancestors probably didn’t labor in the fields
or sit at a loom to weave carpets for hours and hours.
They might have come from a long line of scholars
book smart with ideas and philosophies all made of air,

or aristocratic heirs with servants at their command
becoming passive with the simplest of tasks
like a small child, waiting to be fed, dressed, and bathed
using their eyes and petulant lips to show pleasure and distain.

Royal privilege pumped through their veins
their features like porcelain sculptures,
too dainty for play, placed high on a shelf
out of reach, whose purpose was for show
reminders of another time long ago

before the masses claimed their freedom
and smashed through the fortress walls   
toppling  icons and earthly thrones
ransacking castles and emptying coffers
spilling blood and losing a head or two.

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