Fingering a Way to Count
Martin Galvin

I’ve an index finger to point things out,
To track the alphabet of my ways and means,
To keep the books on what I have and don’t.

Sometimes, that finger bends to touch the thumb,
To say I am man, no lesser mammal me,
With ways to grasp beyond the ken of lesser apes.

I’ve one finger that can pull a trigger,
three to guide a brush to make a likeness
beyond imagining, five that can say Halt

and mean it, five that can run around a back
that isn’t even mine and make it purr.
I will these fingers to my kids and my kids’ kids.

When they’re working out the ways to count
they can unclench those fingers one by one
and bring themselves into the light of maybe.

Return to Archive