The skin on the back
of his eighty-seven year-old hands is wrinkled,
and blotched with sun-spots.
The darker veins are now easily traced,
as they vie for prominence
with the underlying sinews.
A full pre-decimal nine inches
can be measured by extending
tip of thumb to tip of middle finger,
simultaneously trying to calculate
the equivalent in millimetres. to supersede
the inches still deep-rooted in his mind.
A contest entry
- Skin by Mari Goes.
700 points, ended April 9, 2008, 18 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 9 of 9
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Excellent imagery - thanks so much for this entry.
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I love hands in poetry so this poem speaks to me
. I very much liked the way you've weaved different measurements into this - the old and the new. A very refreshing way of looking at hands, and yes, at skin too.
I enjoyed this - thank you for your entry.
~ Nicolette
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I would probably have to double the measures, for I have small hands and fingers.
I like how you have showed it. Very interesting and clever.
Wishing you a happy birthday in few weeks and thanks for adding your part to skin
Mari
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you have painted quite a picture. I readily identify with the problem at hand. usually I try to work in one or the other and forget about converting. my steel rule has both.
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I won't argue the cleverness and insightful descriptions that have been crafted to make the reader aware of the simple origins for benchmarks and reference points, being an engineer myself and CAD drafting a couple of years for a steel fabricator I kinda got used to the 1/16th and even 32nd's when it came to use our workpoints, offsets and cutoffs. I still fail to see how it connects or stems from the original three writings of these ladies, nonetheless I applaud your originality in turning and giving another depth to the 'skin'. Cheers!
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We call them liver spots here (UK) but I think I get the message OK - must be my age. But I was told a thumb tip to knuckle was one inch - I have small hands. I eventually failed at piano playing because my six inches equals your nine. LOL Happy birthday in due course
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I've read it about a dozen times...I'm just too dimwitted it seems. I thought of it, at first as a parody, of the nine inches meaning something, well, not point going there.
Other than that, I think of resistance to change...change in lots of things, and of course that would encompass my original thought. And not only resistance, but the necessity to adapt, even unwillingly.
Your author page says you are 87, is that true, or a poetic license of sorts?
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Sir Ima
Not only am I 87, I'll be 88 in about six weeks from now! old enough to recognise your reference to a parody.
But no parody was intended, Only a retired architect remembering that, in pre-decimalisation days a handy, (no pun intended), method of measuring small items like bricks, tiles, or pieces of timber was to know that from thumb tip to middle finger tip of the extended hand was, for me anyway, nine inches and, for smaller items, from thumb tip to thumb knuckle was an inch and a half.
For complete accuracy, of course, it was better to have a retractable steel tape.
Thankyou for reading and commenting.
Best wishes from 'down-under'.
Shenton
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Ah, thanks for the explanation. Decimalisation never has really caught on here in the U.S. maybe that intractability says something about our current troubles, but I'll leave that for others to debate. Your measurement is much like my mother's measurement of a yard of cloth, from tip of nose with arm extended, it's easy to forget in this age, that things we now take for granted weren't so easy then. And of course I've seen that trend in my own lifetime.
I still have a couple wooden folding rulers my dad used as a carpenter, times have changed a lot in that profession too.
Thanks again and happy birthday...well, in six weeks I mean!
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