My fingernails are longer than they have a right to be
owing to weeks of careful cherishing, gentle usage
and cautious movement that was mistaken for elegance
by a cashier watching my fingers dash into my pocketbook
and tease out a debit card with quick, deliberate movements
bringing to mind those of a spider threading after indifferent prey
along a dew-hung web in a nature documentary.
I take inordinate and unwarranted pride in the sharp click
as they contact countertops, door handles, keyboards unharmed.
It is a pride akin to what I feel slicing the juicy meat of a tomato
grown in the back yard on a plant I bought potted and well-matured.
I had really so little to do with the growth and survival of these fruits and fingernails
the shade of red consistent from one to the other.
I am merely an accomplice to nature
which contributes hormones, sunshine, proteins
and soil or blood-bourne minerals in such delicious combinations.

07/10/2006

Posted on 07/10/2006
Copyright © 2025 Lacy D Phillips