A Redraft

Give me hands I can bathe
with the salt of my tears
and bind with the flesh of my heart

That are gnarled and misshapen
with disease that is crippling
and cling to a prayer cross
as if to a raft

Hands broken and bleeding
from confronting the violence
and fighting injustice
that's otherwise ignored

Give me fingers that warm
in the moist of my mouth
and affliction responsive to love

Give me wounds that will heal
and pain that's absorbed
because of the truth that I care