I remember a child
holding a grandmother's hands,
awed. I view my own
gloved in equal years,
blue veins, lumpy tunnels
running rough as contour maps;

geography of thinning skin,
ivory-blue tinged red
on swollen knuckles
twisting askew,
unparallel.

Her rings once glittered
my hands in graceful arcs,
ballerina gestures
moving in dance,
to cup a crone's cheek
tickle a false-toothed laugh.

Scrutiny shows years
scars on hands like my Mother's,
nails like Mother's Mother,
yellowed moons, thin ridges,
translucent lines layered,
splitting to the cuticle,
brittle mica at tips.

My wrinkled hands folded
stiffly, adorned in gold
sit jeweled and resting
like the mannequin hands
I touched in a coffin.

Pat Hegnauer has been an Acting Teacher, Producer, Actress and Director. She was a Guest Lecturer at Rhode Island University for five years, and founded and produced four Theaters in Newport, RI, and was Artistic Director for 2nd Story Theater for twenty years.

Presently she is a Playwright and Poet. Her plays have been produced in Providence, RI, at Perishable Theater, 2nd Story Theatre, and in NYC at The Raw Space and Tribecca Theater. Her plays have had staged readings at URI, where she won the New Playwright award in 1996 and 97, the Middleboro Arts Festival, Middleboro, MA, and the Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theater, Providence, RI.

Her poems have been published in The Crones Nest, Skywriters Literary Journal, The Great Swamp Gazette, Newport Review, and Scriveners Pen. Her first Chapbook will be published this spring by the Premier Poets Chapbook series.

Presently Pat is working on her first Novel, The Kitchen Diary. She has given chapter readings at the Brown University Faculty Club and the Writers Circle in Providence, RI.

E-mail Pat Hegnauer at
PHegnauer@aol.com

Other poems

[ BABY BY NIGHT LIGHT ] [ MOTHERS' HANDS ] [ DETAILS ] [ PINK RIBBONS FOR JANET ] [ GIRLS WHO DO NOT GO TO THE FAMILY ]

Write Us!

[ Cover ] [ Arts ] [ Columns ] [ Fiction
[ Inspirations ] [ Non-Fiction ] [ Opinions ]
[ Poetry ] [ Rising Stars ] [ Song and Story ]
[ Bookstore ] [ Cosmic Connections ]
[ Best of Theme ] [ About Moondance ]
[ The Ten Commandments of Creative Women ]
[ Awards and Web Rings ]
[ Letters To The Editor ]
 
Have a Submission?

TO THE TOP

Copyright © 2002 Moondance: Celebrating Creative Women
Moondance Logo by Elizabyth Burtis-Lopez, 4 Monkeys Web Design