zkg 26: 'hard as nails'

 

hard as nails

 

this spring

my fingernails started to erupt

their growth rate doubled

 

they also grew hard

brittle

shearing off at mad angles

developing ridges

faults

 

i kept on walking into things

with my nails

leaving shards everywhere

they seemed to grow lower

wider

and striate

 

i look at them

and see my mother’s nails

on what are becoming

my mother’s hands

but with my father’s veins

 

then look at the portrait

just right of me

with my son

and grandchildren

 

but cannot see their nails