20 Dey 1404
Quatrain 63 of 75
“None answer'd this; but after Silence spake
A Vessel of a more ungainly Make:
"They sneer at me for leaning all awry;
What? did the Hand then of the Potter shake?"”
Reflection · Winter 1404
In winter the ungainly vessel is most visible on its winter shelf — its lean more pronounced against the winter stillness, its imperfection less apologetic in the cold honest light. What? did the Hand then of the Potter shake? In winter this question is whispered rather than cried — the winter version of defiance is quieter but no less exact.
None answer'd this — and the none includes winter, includes the long dark, includes the patient waiting of all the crooked and the ungainly for someone to say: yes, the hand shook, and that is a thing the Potter must account for, not you.