Thank You

What if she had turned her grey eyes toward me
and smiled and said, "Thank you for taking care
of your father, my husband"? The purity
of her frankness might have meant, fair's fair.
Reversing the current from receiver
to giver, gratitude eddies, rushing
the flow back, so the giver is never
completely drained. Thank you is a pulsing
of fullness back into emptiness: knowledge.
Candor is the greatest thank you: I know
who you are. How hard you've worked. The steel edge
that would sever me from my life melts in you.
"Please do not make your thousand thank-you notes into a river
of paper boats to others. Let me stave the flow."

Copyright © 2003 Molly Peacock All rights reserved
from River Styx
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission