Thanksgiving
Later, after dinner, we examine your uncle’s photos
of trees, flowers, waterfalls, birds
until I just can’t stand it another second.
I am not at one with nature. Never was.
Some of the people can be fooled all of the time,
even when you yawn right in their faces.
Guests, or ghosts, have taken over the house,
lounging in the living room, watching t.v.
Ugly images of war and politics are all I see.
Cancel the rest of the holidays, please, until this
knot can be untied and our hearts released.
— Terence Winch
An acrostic spelling out the name of a poet who has written memorably about the family romance, Terence Winch’s “Thanksgiving” works rather like a sonnet in thirteen lines. The point of departure is the sort of holiday get-together that many of us secretly (or overtly) dread, though unexpected epiphanies do occur (“I am not at one with nature”) as guests consort with ghosts and watch “images of war and politics” on t.v.
— DL
from the archive; first posted November 27, 2014
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