THE FIRST THANKSGIVING, EXACTLY
You take our implications of white.
You take our insinuations of red.
Agreed. We’d like the land.
We’ll take gold.
Good.
And we’ll take things.
We’ll take spirit.
Sure.
You can have lung cancer
and we’ll have alcoholism.
Seems fair.
If you’ll accept imprisonment behind bars,
we’ll accept incarceration of the soul.
Yes. We’d like animals.
We’ll take machines.
As long as we can have fire.
Then we want electricity. Deal?
Deal. Mystery will be ours—certainty,
yours.
Of course. We’ll take desire.
We’d like satisfaction.
All yours. We’ll take tomorrow.
You take past.
Does that include now?
We’re believers in the eternal now.
And now you have it.
Our hearts are set on Universal
Community.
Great, ’cause we had our eye on Supreme Self.
Weathered.
Shiny.
Circle.
Straight.
Perfect.
Amen.
And we’d really like to have the land.
But we already agreed, we have the land.
Yes, but we really want the land.
What will you give us for it?
Will you take forgiveness?
You mean, we have the ability to forgive?
Yes.
Any trespass? Any transgression?
All and every.
Accepted with gratitude.
No, thank you.
So, are you all hungry?
We could always eat.
—from Rattle #53, Fall 2016
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Michael Mark: “I write to see better. I put on my Superman X-ray vision glasses I got in 1963 from my Cracker Jacks, flip on the computer and check out the goings-on.” (web)
