Ghost Hands by Ágnes Cserháti

Ghost Hands

for P.M.

Ghost hands gather an arm’s-full bouquet,

a freefall of Bonica

bushy and blooming,

sugar and cream-coloured

a confectioner’s dream,

peachtree fuzz

but a memory in May.

Times past steep in words unwritten, like teacups

stained by rims of longing—

but no more, he’ll say,

we’ll have our own stories to tell

in silences downy and deep,

our hands thrums of secrets

air

breathless

as

Ágnes Cserháti’s writing has appeared in Acumen, Dodging the Rain, Hart House Review, PN Review, The Winged Moon, the New York Quarterly, and Poetry Ireland Review. She is associate editor for the Alcuin Society’s book arts journal Amphora, and founder and editor of Rufus Books Publishing.