50 Cent Mug

Smooth ceramic coated with stripes of shades of blue,

Brushstrokes blur the color beneath the glaze.

Sky blue, indigo, sky blue, indigo layered from brim to base.

The high bend of your handle touched with the stroke of blue.

What hands held you before mine,

Softly calloused and dexterous from years of typing,

before you watched from the shelf of the thrift store?

You once knew large hands, tough from the tip to the heel.

Those hands, though strong enough to break,

Always left you out and stained rings inside you

You once knew small hands, clumsy and still learning

That tipped you over often enough you thought you’d break.

But you never did, you never fell.

You once knew hands that shook whenever they lifted you.

They always sloshed what you held,

But took great care never to spill you.

The first hands to hold you were soft yet strong.

Every morning they’d lift you, and hold your curves

so tight their knuckles turned white.