“Baby Hands” by Terri Gower
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Baby Hands” by Terri Gower, part of the League’s Fresh Voices program.
Baby Hands
By Terri Gower
Her long fingers bend, fidget, and grasp at air. They mimic my sister’s— the nails— the same fat
ovals and her knuckles with small creases. She sticks them in her mouth like teats, sucking as if
she can feed herself. Her dark eyes switch between melted chocolate and open-ocean deep. They
dart around like herring swimming in the shallows. I catch my sister’s eye, can she see me? She
stops kneading the bread dough and looks at her daughter, your niece recognizes her mother. I
picture my face like an echocardiogram— fuzzy and high contrast. My cardio-obstetrician says
pregnant women with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension have a 50% mortality rate. At six
months she’ll see that I’m not her mother. For now, I lean in close so her eyes settle on me. I
stretch out my index finger and she grips with her saliva-damp hand and squeezes tight.
Copyright © Terri Gower
Terri Gower is an English as an Additional Language Teacher and poet living on the unceded and traditional lands of the lək̓ʷəŋən speaking people (also known as Victoria, BC, Canada). She is an associate editor with JLRB Press, an independent, small-run imprint that specializes in poetry. She also has a rare lung disease called Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension which often makes its way into her writing. She has been published in Bangs Zine, Tissues PH Magazine, and Gastropoda.
Fresh Voices is a publication and workshop program created by and for the League’s associate members, curated and edited by Erin Vance.
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