In a glass case, in the surgeon's waiting room,
plaster of Paris hands reach upward
as if some teacher has just asked,
Who wants to erase the blackboards
and they all do,
ring and middle fingers inseparable,
double thumbs,
fingers curled to ram's horns
or grown too long a rampant branch,
or four, split into twos
the V in a divining rod.

Across the room, a woman
reads a story book to her boy.
The father, who has no right hand,
whose thumb blooms
from the white of his wrist,
runs that thumb
up his son's bare arm and down again,
as if he were touching a sacred manuscript.
The boy pays attention to his mother's voice,
as though nothing remarkable were happening.

Sondra Upham
Plymouth, MA

Hands is from Sondra's chapbook, Freight, winner of the 2000 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition. A version of this poem was also published in Field, # 63 Fall 2001 as Plaster of Paris Hands in a Glass Case in the Hand Surgeon's Waiting Room.

SONDRA UPHAM's poems have appeared in many journals, including, Field, Prairie Schooner, The New Virginia Review, and Phoebe. Freight was the winner of the 2000 Slapering Hol Chapbook Competition and was chosen by Marie Ponsot. A version of this poem was also published in Field, # 63 Fall 2001 as Plaster of Paris Hands in a Glass Case in the Hand Surgeon's Waiting Room.

“Sondra Upham's title, Freight, is the lodestone of this carefully constructed work. There are poems of resilience and happiness, but the main theme returns continually throughout the text. The title is fully stated and the central image stunningly reiterated toward the end of the chapbook”
Paul Zimmer, The Georgia Review, Fall 2002.