Renee Emerson
Hand Prints
&
Appraisal
Hand Prints
Our walls are stamped
with a five-fingered pattern
of grease, mud, Sunday dinner,
a touch hieroglyphics.
My sister lays a razor to the elbow
of wall and ceiling to get clean
lines. Green on white,
a mathematical equation of color.
She keeps a neat house.
I paint a layer to hold those hands
in closer. Their slap, pinch,
crouch into clutching a pen.
Nimble, able, dimples disappear.
I love them for what they are—
small, dirty, and open.
Appraisal
They’ve made a business of it,
my neighbors—estate sales
in the suburbs. The old man
wears a gold chain; the woman
her hair short. On sunny days,
they sit on the front porch,
a matched set, smoking
and cursing. My husband and I
teach children to string numbers
to numbers, words to words.
Less dusting off, displaying
to be sold. Next door, the daffodils
are mercilessly poisoned,
and all year the stone Mary
in the corner of their yard
cradles dead oak leaves.
Still, I nod hello, cutting the yard,
and they answer with coins for eyes.
Renee Emerson is the author of the poetry collections Keeping Me Still (Winter Goose Publishing 2014), Threshing Floor (Jacar Press 2016), and Church Ladies (Fernwood Press 2023). She is also the author of the chapbook The Commonplace Misfortunes of Everyday Plants (Belle Point Press), and the middle grade novel Why Silas Miller Must Learn to Ride a Bike (Wintergoose Publishing 2022). She lives in the Midwest with her husband and children. www.renee-emerson.com