"Your hand"
When I came in to bed tonight
Your hand was stretched across my pillow
And you were deep in sleep
The span of your fingers marks all things
The distance between two points
The reasons I cry on my birthday
And the one Christmas gift you never put down
The reasons some people never get to be happy
And why young children cry
All hope for you in your heart
Was the distance between your fingers
Like dolphins curbing the ivory coast
Or flowers alight in your hair
Your beauty was born of briefness
That I will not always be there
The pain in your outstretched arms
Encompassed for me all of life's meaning
It's sleeping in the flames like a puppy
It's underneath the snow
It's when you are most afraid
That you get the closest to it
And things that are hidden in packages
And things that are too late to be learned
Things lost without an answer
And things hat will never be found
"Oh Wife," your fingers whispered
As I pulled back the covers
No more to be your protector
But many leagues till then
Let's take what we are given
And enjoy that which we have
Your long, tapered fingers tell everything
In Jesus' Name,
Amen