Our small hands Ache to be held.²
What’s left to learn is how to press
Palm to Palm—and not want more.³
Our hands Clutch together: a perfect fit—⁴
Pressure on the palms of the hands
Effects a transference of souls:
The interlinking of fingers
Symbolizes every Intimacy.⁵
Instead of arms to hold you
I want longer limbs—Vines,
To Wrap you twofold, threefold—⁶
We clasp tightly, and feel our separateness dissolve
Into one another, our skins Confluent & Melting—⁷
We hold each other so fiercely, so dearly, that
We don’t know anything but Each Other—⁸
Imparadised in one another’s arms!⁹
The Strength we gain is
Th’ Embrace we give.¹⁰
¹ John Donne, The Ecstacy
² José Olivarez, Home Court
³ Jeff Mann, Blue Ridge Heating and Air
⁴ Naomi Shihab Nye, Mothers Waiting for Their Sons
⁵ Philip Roth, American Pastoral
⁶ Denise Levertov, The Mourner
⁷ Primo Levi tr. Raymond Rosenthal, Through the Walls
⁸ Ursula K. Le Guin, Tehanu
⁹ John Milton, Paradise Lost
¹⁰ Alexander Pope, Epistle III