Palm Reading

If you look hard,
you can see the soul of a man
in the lines of his hands
and the cracks of his fingernails.

Road maps in flesh,
tracing a journey
of memories not yet completed.

If you squint and strain,
you can feel his dreams
and see the lost hopes collected
in the wrinkled backs of his fingers.

Maybe,
this bit of grit under his thumbnail
is a friendship that ended in angry words and shame...
This scar on the thumb
is a lover lost to the vague
and often discounted changes of aging...
This wart
a brother or farther lost to war.

The lines run circuits
and into dead ends,
and lead us as if following
is a duty that we owe out of guilt,
because we can't look this man in the eyes.

© Harley

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