ESCAPING WITH OUR LIVES

On the evening before
          Turkey Day
     we cozied up to watch TV,
                      and saw,

three wildebeest snapped
      in half by giant
  crocodiles,
              one hippo mauled by
          lions,
     two gazelle, still alive,
                  disembowled by
maniacal hyenas,

then a news story about a man
                  who opened fire on his best
              friend in a Boston Market
    restaurant,
         and one about a college boy, disappeared
forever,
        now given up for dead,
   yet another about a senior citizen,
                  alzheimer's patient, who wandered
                        off, found frozen to death,
        followed by a man who killed
  his date, lo, a "pre-op"
                    transsexual, and

then, we turned off the TV,
        gave thanks,
                                  weakly,
and marched  off
             trembling to bed, to the night-
                               mares lurking
       on the serengeti of our souls.

 

New Hampshire, Thanksgiving
1995


All written material © Bill Schechter, 2016
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