What Thanks Are For

For Kathy
This empty hand, like our home
is emptiest when empty
of your hand;

these awkward elbows, their graceless
worst without yours
graceful near by me,
these knees, would not could never
kneel

to thrust up thanks
to God if you were not
what thanks were for;
of loins: the nearer yours
to mine the easier
the hard to bear.

And this back
would crack under
the burden of
you gone.

“What Thanks are For” is the dedication poem for Have, Lee Robison’s latest book of poems. Have is available at Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Have is published under the David Robert Books imprint by WordTech Communications.