are learned on their own fingertips:
remove the top layer, no blood.
No wasted onions and their thin
membranes connected with slime
like the veil on a bride. How else
to care for another? First find a form
of gentleness with yourself. Learn
how to sense before the nerves
scream. When to pull back. When
to stop altogether. When to move
quicker, so the taking is clean,
the point of tear indistinguishable.
Only before, or after. No now.
Now is the part that hurts.