old and new

my co-worker's wife had a baby a few months ago. i like hearing about her and sometimes, my co-worker or his wife will bring her by for a visit. he told me about being amazed by looking at her hands that were so soft and new. "it's like my hands are made of something completely different than hers" he said. and i know what he means. my fingers are a topographic map of cris-crossed ravines and fissures. there are hard islands of callous that rise up out of my palms. the edges of my fingernails seem to be perpetually stained with black crud. nicks and cuts and tears pepper them everywhere. when she holds my rough stained finger in her tiny perfect ones, it is like they are made out of two opposite substances.