With bare hands

With bare hands. 15 th June 2022.

I have finished the poem that I started writing on this very day, twenty years ago. This one sentence, one line poem, that I have been crafting for twenty years. Before that day, bare hands were all I could see. All I could give you. You may not remember, as I do, the barren desert in which you found me and which I showed you back then. Despite the desert, you believed that I was poem. A bright, unwritten poem. You encouraged me to write with my only chisel. My bare hands. A letter at a time. A word each day. Each new word was cherished by you. You loved the unborn poem before I even knew I could write it..

For twenty years, I wrote the poem. I wrote. When my hands were radiant and full with the new, bright life you infused me. I wrote. When at times I lost the way. I wrote. When I lost sight of my bare hands but could still see you. I kept writing, simply because you believed I was a poem. Unwritten. Unfolded. Untold. I wrote. Lines, so many lines. But just yesterday, as I read the poem and prepared to gift it to you in its complete shape, I decided to erase each word I wrote. With tears and joy, I erased every single sentence of the poem, but one. The first line I ever wrote was all that remained. I guess you always knew that the first line of a poem is all that really matters..

Today, I give you the complete and biggest poem I will ever write. It reads, as it read twenty years ago: “ You’ve carried me here, now I’ll carry you the rest of the way ”. I have also finally found the title for this poem. A title that you have been whispering to me all along. I hear it now, my love. The poem is called “With bare hands” . Because the barren desert is no longer there but my bare hands are still all I can give you. And bare hands are all we need to keep carrying each other the rest of the way. So there it is. A finished poem. A finished title..

Now come and write the next poem with me. A new poem for the rest of the way. And this time, I will whisper its title to you. Can you hear it? “ The rest of the way ”. That is the title of the new poem. I will start by writing the first new words: “With bare hands, I will carry you the rest of the way”. Now, come and write with me. Bring me your bare hands. I’ll bring the chisel. What are your words?.

A picture containing tree, person, outdoor Description automatically generated.