Hands on a Hard Body - Lucy Steward

First published in Poet's Choice.

Hands on a hard body, that’s what we were

A tangle of broken bones,

souls slowly interwoven into

something beautiful, a thread, a photograph, maybe

I like to think that we were beautiful

And I don’t like to think about what more we could’ve been

That those hands, strangely soft

might’ve held the ones that belong to me

Might’ve merged into one

body

one beating rhythm of possibility

But now we hold nothing

And that thread must’ve frayed because

I feel our souls

slipping

away from the other as they dance on the brink of strangerdom

And this body

Is empty.

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Lucy Steward is 16. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and has appeared in Humans of the World, The Autoethnographer, and elsewhere. Her first novel should be done soon. She is a classically trained pianist, a songwriter, and in a rock band. Lucy lives in New York City with her little sister and parents. She loves a good night's sleep.