Thanksgiving

Large table. Happy faces all around it.
A bit of packaged up Americana.
Back then, when the traditions were first founded,
before prefrozen turkeys, before Santa,
before the Hallmark cards and selfie pictures,
the faces were both dirtier and meaner.
No smiles. A solemn reading from the scriptures,
thanks given, though the tables were much leaner,
then back to the mundaneness of survival.
Some surely feel that way about tomorrow
and brace against the seasonal arrival
of specials that would seek to steal and borrow
somebody else’s misery for sport.
Please give, they say. Could use your full support.