Hilda Raz has published many books, most recently TRANS and DIVINE HONORS (Wesleyan UP Poetry Series) and WHAT BECOMES YOU, essays, with Aaron Raz Link (U. of Nebraska Press). She is editor of PRAIRIE SCHOONER and the PS Prize Book Series in Poetry and Short Fiction and is Professor of English at the University of Nebraska

Thank You Very Much

indeed for the mush giant hosta become with frost,
for mighty fine women up from their beds to put on coffee,
for chores reduced by cold,  for cold nights lengthened at the hem. Thank you very much for undertaking this audition,
for entertainment unraveling five rows back and center,
for free tickets’ admission to the big ones, birth and passion,
for novels uncut; for heads unencumbered, not yet garlanded,            
for the unanswered question, the instruments in the band just warming up.

Thank you too for the filled freezer,
not too many dead animals on the verge, big ones this season,
for farmers’ markets, for used cars with not much mileage,
for brooms instead of vacuum cleaners, for cell phones that vibrate
and for not needing one, for peaceful borders, for partners and sons and daughters
and sex changes, if necessary; for braces on limbs and teeth, for heart surgery,
for sutures, for stints and staples, for health insurance
when we have it, for generations, for shoe laces, for tap dancing
classes and the energy to take them, for survival in the camps,
and patience and touching, for hunger and the sounds that start the beat,
for love for love for love for love, for love.

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Copyright 2007, Hilda Raz.
 All Rights Reserved by Author.