Lessons of a Hard Hand – Jennifer Dracos-Tice

She taught me to use the flat of my hand

fast, palm heel strikes to kill the medium

roaches, the you’ve got a problem roaches,

that laced up and down paint cracks

while her mom smoked pot in the kitchen.

At her dad’s, she showed me how her hard hand

could bring down my guilt in torrents,

spasms of mother mourning and musk.

She taught me open and hard, but

not the feel of another, where finger-

tips meet tips, edges, and lips,

share minute surfaces of rising,

heat transfer. That lesson I draw

in bed with you, one warm surface

adhering to another.