Hands by Tim Moder

Touching is like art.
The touch of sand leaves lines
on jasper, over time.
The pull of the tide
rolls agates and quartz
over a mobile reef.
Wet hands of an artist
etch history into the rock’s skin
with soft touches.
An uncut stone –
A block of wood –
A mountain never climbed –
are cut away as they reveal
an image kept inside.
Hard hands of an artist
shape mystery into the earth’s skin
with long hard touches.
Colors on a canvas, erase
faint traces of potential,
to fill the world with mosaics
and tapestries flushed with life.
Skilled hands of an artist
trace destiny into the maps skin
in remembered embraces.