Thanksgiving

'Too bad you couldn't be there

 but you were flying through space on your own asteroid...'

 

I love the characteristic blend of humour and sentiment in this simultaneously funny and touching Thanksgiving poem from Billy Collins.

Today I give thanks for those we have loved who have left this earth and left an indelible print in our hearts. 

Happy Thanksgiving.
 


The Gathering, a Thanksgiving Poem - Billy Collins


Outside, the scene was right for the season,
heavy gray clouds and just enough wind
to blow down the last of the yellow leaves.

But the house was different that day,
so distant from the other houses,
like a planet inhabited by only a dozen people

with the same last name and the same nose
rotating slowly on its invisible axis.
Too bad you couldn't be there

but you were flying through space on your own asteroid
with your arm around an uncle.
You would have unwrapped your scarf

and thrown your coat on top of the pile
then lifted a glass of wine
as a tiny man ran across a screen with a ball.

You would have heard me
saying grace with my elbows on the tablecloth
as one of the twins threw a dinner roll across the room at the other.