The Handshake

It’s the closest to a hug
he ever gave—when he dropped
me off at college, when I left
for boot camp,
when I came home for his last time.

But the one I remember most
was the time his appendix burst,
and he thought he was dying.

As he lay on the gurney,
his hand found mine on the rail,
and he held it, hard, until they took him
away, as if only my grip
could save him from falling
into that dark place,
only my hand
could hold him above.





William Greenway's tenth collection, Everywhere at Once, won the Poetry Book of the Year Award from the Ohio Library Association, as did his eighth collection Ascending Order.  Both are from the University of Akron Press Poetry Series.  His newest book, The Accidental Garden, is forthcoming from Word Press, and his Selected Poems is forthcoming from FutureCycle Press.  His publications include Poetry, American Poetry Review, Southern Review, Georgia Review, Missouri Review, Southern Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, and Shenandoah. He has won the Helen and Laura Krout Memorial Poetry Award, the Larry Levis Editors’ Prize from Missouri Review, the Open Voice Poetry Award from The Writer's Voice, the State Street Press Chapbook Competition, an Ohio Arts Council Grant, an Academy of American Poets Prize, and been named Georgia Author of the Year.  He is Distinguished Professor of English at Youngstown State University.