Turkey
by Lightning Rod
Posted to Utterances on 2003-11-27 10:46:00
This poem is from my book, Inktricks
the subject is those clips you always see on the news on Thanksgiving of the homeless people getting turkey and dressing at the Salvation Army
TURKEY
they have slipped the tether of our culture
bewildered locomotives
they’ve left the mainline tracks
confused as freighters
trying to make port in a Dipsey Dumpster
they do eat well on Thanksgiving
for this we congratulate ourselves
on the evening news
It’s traditional as a pilgrim
to watch them slurping giblet gravy
eyes vacant as Arabia
yes, every Thanksgiving we love to
trot out the unfortunates
the television screen becomes some
ephemeral membrane
bisecting two planes of destitution.