Mothering
Take these hands for instance,
asbestos fingers she used to say
when we watched, awed, as she plucked
boiled eggs straight from the pan.
Take these hands, and how delicately
they move to select berries from the punnet,
how elegantly they add emphasis
to her stories, free in the joy of telling.
Take these hands and all the love
they have offered by putting meals
on our table, sustenance as a form
of benediction for our days.
Take these hands, all they've written down,
how they tucked photos into albums
preserving our memories like jam,
the glue that holds us all together.
Sophia Argyris
Sophia Argyris is a poet and yoga teacher, born in Belgium she spent her late childhood and teenage years in the North of Scotland, and currently lives in Oxfordshire. Her work has been published in various places, including Magma, Under the Radar, The Agenda Broadsheet, Structo, Sarasvati, and Prole. She had a short collection published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in 2014. She is inspired by travel and the natural world.