a bird flight and you are too young for such a distance

The risk is
calculated: the
number held and

the cancelled
digits touch
the grey sea

null of
drift and away
beyond those finger

tips and it
is my feeling
you have

failed
to grasp
the

transformation
you looked for. We
can barely

see your
wrist bones, a
bird flight and

you are
too young
for such

a bird flight and you are too young for such a distance

distance.
I can see
a dark

line across
your palm
it was your thin

mark on
life, a shadow divide –
your hand

on the
cave wall
is virtual

and every mother
one of us would
despair to take it:

palm to palm
thumb to thumb
fingerprint to fingerprint

we see, we
feel, we know. I
am ashamed.