Thanksgiving Dinner by Mario Vitale
Home for the holiday from New Orleans,

Happy as a bee in the tree making a tune so merrily We only get a glimpse of what is to come The thought to be thankful in a job well done Out in the street a chance to meet & greet A wooden soldier stands at the edge of my bed post The love we show comes flowing in a reason to begin again Emmet sifts through the morning newspaper only to discover His band is coming along a chance to sing a song Prancing through the leaves in a land of make believe What to soar in this life for what we are to achieve Thanksgiving comes but once a year with sweet cheer A whole stuffed turkey with all it's trimmings Only to summon a passing few for dinner well soon discover Have to say thanks to our maker up above Then to play our guitar outside in the mud Emmet will soon discover is it any wonder he got to much time on his hands A great plan out on the sled for a passing crow was full of dread There will be peace in the valley for Emmet & band you understand The tunes of glorious days gone by with a soft reply Shadows turn the mud to sod a lonely frog Give peace to all traveler's from here to far A rainbow will appear from that of one shooting star Sing out to the trees with turned up leaves to please Emmet Otter's Thanksgiving with love down from heaven up above

Father at the tiny
drop leaf, brown rosewood, mahogany
table with the gold, grinning claw feet;
Father, choler- red-in the-face, short-
sleeved white shirt and cane, says the blessing
as Mother brings in the turkey and cranberry.
Then Mother asks, “Won’t you have more?” and father :
“Do you think Moll Flanders was a *****?”
(I have suffered and bleached my hair blond.)
I am silent before their replies.
Mother sighs. “I can scarce speak to her.”
And Father, too, quotes Shakespeare. (I am thin
as paper and the rose- colored bowl
of blown glass sitting on the silver stand,
half- filled with water.)
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is
to have a thankless daughter”