legacy of the hands
the family hands:
large, leathery, brown,
big-boned

tools for the fields,
for making art

elegant hands,
shy, hidden hands

hands of aunties onion-picking,
and grandmothers washing,

hands for rolling masa
& molten bronze sculpture

hands that live through the brown
generations, un-heralded
to our latin eyes, lips, personality

but there they are: a structural legacy
so beautiful.