Zoe – Yiayia’s Hands

Profile Zoe LE Child Mag July 2019

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Zoe is Townsend Harris HS Junior, Insta-poet and avid volleyball player and competitor. She was the First place winner in The Phoenix’s annual writing contest.


Yiayia’s Hands

Yiayia’s hands are heavily creased,
Worn, as the hands of any elder would appear.
Yet their touch,
their naturally geriatric qualities
That project love into emptiness,
Are superbly ethereal.

These are the hands that blessed the marriage of my parents,
Although the colors of their skin juxtaposed
During a time where a commitment between opposites like this
Was far from a plotted limerence.
Still, these hands reached out,
With the option to repel,
Still these hands reached out,
To hold and to be held.

These are the hands that touched the hospital doors,
And extended to meet their firstborn, premature granddaughter,
Fragile, aquiver.
Bombinating a mellifluous wail,
giving life to the soul who would grow
to be just as strong as the woman she was named after,
And do that name justice
By thriving in her living masterpiece
When the world was a blank canvas.
They’re the arms that changed my diapers
Despite the atrociousness of my cries that turned into screams,
Stretches that turned into kicks.
Still, these hands reached out,
With the option to repel,
Still these hands reached out,
To hold and to be held.

These are the hands that sewed my graduation dress,
Producing excruciating calluses and dribbles of blood along the way.
It was worth repairing the rips and holes…
…I couldn’t do so myself.
And still, these hands reached out,
With the option to repel,
Still these hands reached out,
To hold and to be held.

These are the hands that have pulled me close
And reinforced the amount of affection one could feel.
They dissolve the nefarious thoughts
And bring out a vulnerability
That is unbeknown to ones who
never let it in.

I desire to interlock her wrinkles with my crevices,
to hold Yiayia’s hands
until the day she lies supine,
And I can’t hold them anymore.


© Zoe