Gregory Corso's Hands

 I’m probably mis-quoting him,  but there

are a couple of  lines in a poem of his that

go like:  “the old gangster looks out of the

apartment window/ his gun rusting in his

arthritic  hands.”

I could do a series of poems just about

the word:   hand/s…. powerful,  simple

word . In the book, “Day Of The Locust

by Nathanel West,  he gives  the main

character  over sized  hands that, at  times,

try to communicate for him.

“Pete’s hands tried to grab lamp posts,

fences, stop signs, anything to slow him

from where he was going.”

“What you been up to tonight,  Snarky? 

You were seen in a

neighborhood that had some problems.”

“Nuthin’, Sergeant,   honest….I was just

collectin’ cans…I heard some scufflin’

goin’on, but that was at least a block away.”

“Let me see your hands.”

Snarky’s hands would have been

complimented by the  word ‘filthy’. 

They looked like they could easily be

mistaken for garbage them selves. 

“Well….looky here….flecks of

turquoise paint….a body

was found next to a car that was this….

rather unique color.” They put Snarky’s

hands in locked plastic bags as evidence

                                ****

Sheriff Baltimore was  an amazing

judge of character.   But he could

only do it with men,  usually, and it

wasn’t  the wa y they looked him in

the eye,  it was the handshake,

not just the firmness of the grip, 

it was the temperature  and moistness

of the hands themselves…whether  or not

he could sense in them that they’d worked….

and he could tell if they’d been laborers or

mechanics,  plumbers or  watchmakers.

And he could know if they’d been honest

or liars…good men who made honest mistakes, 

or bad men who needed to be  controlled.

                                   ****

I can see Gregory Corso’s hands passing me

a pint of bourbon in a paper bag… banging a

typewriter  or a girl with  equal  surreal

Sicilian glee….living New York when it wasn’t

that easy but everything was happening culturally

at the same time, which happened sometimes in the

world,  particularly in the 20^th century

when we,  as a species, were learning to self-evolve .