Pages

Monday, April 9, 2007

A WOMAN'S HANDS


I watched her from about one shoulder length away. We were in a crowd and she stood in front of me. She was a thin black woman probably about my age. Her hair had been intricately braded with large swells of hair gathered up and twisted until it seemed she had a current of lazy rushing water pouring down and around her head.

She had eased her way through the crowd and juggling large bundles she had managed to get into position just in front of me. She took off her coat and though it was still a rather cool spring evening, the many bodies standing around had produced a small cloud of warmth. Her packages settled at her feet and her hands now empty she began to play with the peeling cuticles on her fingers. She looked down at her jacket strewn across her bundles and seeing that the frayed cuff on one of the sleeves was visible to the public’s eyes, she quickly turned the sleeve over and returned to the business with her fingers.

She stood in front of me for only a few minutes and then she took up her jacket and bundles and once again made her way back through the crowd to deal with whatever business she had for the remainder of the day. But I had captured her hands with my small digital camera and though I had focused on her fingers I’ll probably remember how she had not wanted anyone to see her frayed jacket sleeve. There was great dignity in her posture and her face and hair, but her hands were those of a hard workingwoman. I will not make up a story about her life, but there was a story in there, of that I am sure. I’ll let you look at her hands and you tell me the tale.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thinks she's a mom that never had children. As such she bears the burden of carrying around all of these unborn children in her head, instead of the memory of one manifested.

Robertnqko said...

There is no need of faxing any document and also there are no paper pen formalities involved. One can sign up for the service for anywhere from $20 to $ 5 per month, depending on their usage requirements. When you receive a fax, your provider will send you an email with the fax attached, usually in a Tif or Pdf file. Follow the blueprint above to hook up your device to your existing residential landline connection. No matter how long the machine has set there unused it will be warm before the first page of the fax is received and print it out about two seconds later.