Hands across the Altar

By Lorraine Jeffery

The author lives in Utah but is currently serving a mission with her husband in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

hands poem

Strong, unblemished, untried hands

clasped across the altar—making a promise.

Unknown challenges will stretch tendons;

tragedies will break bones;

tasks will wear calluses

and scar fingers.

The hands promised support, protection, love,

comfort, compassion, trust, and

righteousness.

They tilled gardens, blessed heads, paid bills,

fixed water pipes, drove cars, and

wiped tears.

Now they are large-knuckled and blue-veined,

with skin like parchment.

The parchment of a promise kept.