A Thanksgiving Prayer

Thanks for the wild turkey and Passenger Pigeons,
   destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts--

thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison--

thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger--

thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin,
   leaving the carcass to rot--

thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes--

thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and falsify
   until the bare lie shines through--

thanks for the KKK, for the nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches,
   for decent church-going women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces--

thanks for "Kill a Queer for Christ" stickers--

thanks for laboratory AIDS--

thanks for Prohibition and the War Against Drugs--

thanks for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business--

thanks for a nation of finks--yes,

thanks for all the memories...all right, lets see your arms...
   you always were a headache and you always were a bore--

thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

--William S Burroughs, Tornado Alley

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