“What the Fingers Do,” by J. Estanislao Lopez (Poetry ’19)

2019 poetry alum J. Estanislao Lopez was recently featured in Zocalo Public Square. Read an excerpt of “What the Fingers Do” below:

What the Fingers Do

My daughter learned to point
in a cemetery.
There were many deaths that year.

The priests’ black shirts grew discolored from sweat.
Florists did well.
Pillowy, white fabric lined the open casket,

as if we were burying, with the body,
a bit of sky…

 

Read this poem in its entirety here: https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2022/05/13/j-estanislao-lopez/chronicles/poetry/