The Discovery of Hands by Jessica Goodfellow

the baby discovers her hands at around six to eight weeks

the Japanese word for baby /akachan/ contains the word for red /aka/

archaic prints of palms coated in red paint and pressed against cave walls

the baby is born with a grasping reflex, which disappears at around five to six months

the Japanese for red maple /kaede/ derives from the ancient word /kaerude/ meaning /frog’s hand/ because of the shape of its leaves / it is also said to mean /baby’s hand/ for the same reason

Indonesia circa 37,900 BCE / Spain circa 37,300 BCE

deep in a cave, a hand was placed on a rock, and stenciled by a mist of manganese blown through a tube of hollow bone

the baby, at about four months, brings objects placed into her hand from hand to mouth

the ancient outlines of hands on cave walls, relief in spat red ochre / hand-to-mouth existence preserved in mouth-to-hand art

Australia circa 30,000 BCE

in some languages, nouns are marked as alienable /able to exist independent of its possessor/ or inalienable /unable to exist independent of its possessor/

/that is/ inalienable are the things unable to be given away /while/ things that can change hands are said to be alienable

often body parts /such as hands/ and kin /such as the baby/ are classified as inalienable

at four to five months, the baby reaches out and tries to grasp objects, without much control

at the Caves of Gargas in France, 27,000 years ago, some 45+ individuals made 231 hand stencils / 114 of these are missing fingers / often missing multiple fingers /

were the fingers only folded down /or/ were they painted over /or/ had they been lost to frostbite or accident /or/ were they amputated as religious sacrifice

/your hands are clean/ /your hands are full/ /your hands are tied/

are fingers amputated as sacrifice still inalienable /or/ is it because they are inalienable that they can be sacrificed

Papua New Guinea circa 18,000 BCE

Bayol Cave, France: a single handprint left by a very small child 17,000 years ago

ritual finger amputation has been practiced in many societies as expressions of grief /or/ group identification /or/ marital status /or/ punishment

Stone Age art features more left-handed than right-handed stencils

the word sinister meaning /malicious or underhanded/ comes via the French meaning /on the left side/ derived from the Latin for /left-handed/

it is not obvious whether the baby is left-handed /or/ right-handed until around age three

the left palm print of /perhaps/ a 13-year-old boy during /maybe/ an initiation ceremony /about/ 9000 years ago in /what is now known as/ Argentina

stencils of hands are also called negative hands

to be caught red-handed means to be caught in the act / to be indisputably guilty

the palm prints of young male initiates painted in a mixture of clay and blood

to have someone’s blood on your hands

1500 negative handprints from 12,000 years ago found in the highest, least accessible caves

found in the dimness, where you can hardly see your hand in front of your own face

also considered inalienable in many languages are expressions of the body including shadows / reflections / voices

at five to six months, the baby grasps onto objects but may have trouble letting go

Turkey circa 5000 BCE / South Africa circa 4000 BCE / Belize circa 1500 BCE

Three Rivers, New Mexico, USA, circa 1400 CE / hand motifs, carved out of rock, incorporate spiral patterns

from nine to twelve months, the baby picks up small items with a pincer grasp, using her thumb and index finger

spirals in rock art have variously been speculated to represent: feminine energy /or/ the portal to the spirit world /or/ the sun /or/ life /or/ eternity

spirals, among other geometric forms common in prehistoric art worldwide, are also present in visions seen during migraine headaches or during hallucinations

are the spirals and geometric shapes commonly seen during migraines alienable or inalienable / what about those in hallucinations

at around fifteen months, the baby holds a crayon in her fist and with it makes rudimentary marks on paper

a spiral whorl is one of three basic ridge patterns frequently found in fingerprints, which are formed during the twelfth week of gestation

by the time she is two years old, the baby holds a pencil between her thumb and first two fingers

the three basic fingerprint ridge patterns are loops (found in around 60 to 65% of people) / whorls, including spirals (30 to 35%) / and arches (only 5%)

in fingerprint analysis, /persistence/ is the principle that fingerprints do not change over a person’s lifetime

usually thought of as inalienable: footprints and handprints / by logical extension, surely also fingerprints

by age three, the baby writes a few letters of the alphabet and/or draws a cross

fingerprint analysis was first used in Argentina in the 1890s to identify a guilty person who had not been caught red-handed

the baby’s fingerprints will not change over her lifetime

spirals in archaic rock art may have been calendrical devices

your fingerprints will not change over your lifetime

the spiraling whorls in your unchanging fingerprints may be a calendrical device / to have time on your hands

your fingerprints will not have changed over your lifetime

to know it like the back of your hand

Jessica Goodfellow’s poetry books are Whiteout (University of Alaska Press, 2017), Mendeleev’s Mandala (2015), and The Insomniac’s Weather Report (2014). A former writer-in-residence at Denali National Park and Preserve, she’s had poems in Verse Daily, Motionpoems, and Best American Poetry 2018.