Chard deNiord: The Hand

I can only make out small parts 

of it instead of the whole,

and yet it reaches just long 

enough for me to see little 

by little, a finger here, a knuckle

there, but never the hand al-

together, except in a vision 

for which I’m loathe to take 

any credit, even for a nail 

or mole, which I don’t, lest 

I lose sight of the hand 

that isn’t there but holds

my attention as if it were,

even as a vision in place  

of the hand that is, that’s other,

if partial in the void behind

the veil I hang across my 

eyes for seeing it move. 

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Copyright 2021 Chard deNiord

Chard deNiord’s many books include In My Unknowing (Pitt Press, 2020). He is cofounder of the New England College MFA program in poetry.