What is a thesis?

(Today's prompt from Writer's Digest didn't particularly appeal to me, but the idea of a topic and anti-topic did. So I decided to try a tactic I learned in a poetry workshop, to create a poem and then to write it in reverse. Here's what emerged.)

The thesis begins and it culminates
an experience of sometimes serious strife.
It is important, and meaningless, all at once.
The writer argues a point.
If there's no argument, there's no thesis.
No start.
No finish.
Only a middle, a neutral zone.
Switzerland in the midst of a world war.

Switzerland in the midst of a world war.
Only a middle, a neutral zone.
No finish.
No start.
If there's no argument, there's no thesis.
The writer argues a point.
It is important and meaningless, all at once.
An experience of sometimes serious strife,
the thesis begins and it culminates.