Berthold Lippel

THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING

I ate the dark meat
crushed with cranberries
mushy mushy in my mouth
and i closed my eyes
and rubbed my grateful tummy
and thought deep philosophical thoughts
giving thanks
yes--I need to make a list
of all the silent friends
never thanked enough
i give thanks
(in no particular order)
to my heart, faithful, 60 times a second, leaky but valiant
to my lungs, tireless, doing complicated chemistry to feed my blood
to my stomach, uncomplaining in accepting my ravenous inventions
to my kidneys, peeing joyfully in yellow fountains
to my liver, sorting the good from the bad all day long
to my eyes, painting images of a make believe reality
to my ears, sucking in bach and poems and words of love
to my nose, patiently bearing the burden of my glasses
to my tongue, expert at spices and sour and sweet
to my penis, proud dispenser of pleasure
to my brain , buzzing with wandering thoughts and memories
to my feet, quietly slaving in the dark to give me motion
---and all the other silent organs, glands, tubing, liquids, enzymes, muscles, tendons
bones, joints, secretions, exits, immunities, bacteria, dna, rna--
and all the billions trillions molecules and atoms and electrons and alphas and bosons and positrons
and gluons and quarks and quantum this and quantum that--
and all this moving and buzzing and sputtering and turning and jumping pudding
somehow
everything together
making ME
eating dark turkey meat
and giving thanks