From the collection published in 2021, The Immediate and No Sooner.
Shadorma 310
8/13/20
Poppy seeds
in their plastic jar
Finger and
thumb grasp then
you do a shake-a shake-a
and pop the red lid
Shadorma 311
8/13/20
Arms dried out
cracked and pulled away
from shoulders
stiffened up
drawn in tight – my old age but
not: a clay sculpture.
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
I love the last – I’ve mostly given up doing clay figures just because of what you describe! And now I can’t help thinking about my bursitis and clay!!
Yes, I did a lot of clay and I think I’d try it again (in a studio setting, not at home here since I got rid of my kiln) but my fingers are not as adept as they used to be, who knows!
I love the metaphor of the clay sculpture and its relationship to the sculptor. I can also hear the tumble of those poppy seeds from the jar.
Thank you. I think clay is an easy medium to see equivalencies in with the human life, and of course it has been the material so many items we use have been made of over history, so it’s close to us in ways other materials are not, I feel.