For Old Bull Lee: In Fear of Thanksgiving 2021

For William S Burroughs, 
That old Bull Lee
In the hope he lives on
Eternal.

In Fear of Thanksgiving Day
2021

Thanks for the impossible meat
And the death defying slaughterhouse
Workers, that risk life and limb
Soul and healthy lung tissue
In the pursuit of the 
Great American Right
To gobble chicken 
Tenders and scrabble
In the white and dark
Meat for the wishbones
And plastic gizzard bag
That melteth upon
Rookie cookers
Bone dry fou(w)l
Flesh
Put there by the
Sacrificial hands
Of undocumented
Underpaid
Unappreciated
Workers.
This land is not your land
But the dirty work is all 
Yours, baby:
Kill my bird
Batter it 
Fry it
And deny it.
We will be lucky to
Get a nuggie
Thank you Mr. President
No one can afford 
The meat, not even stuff
This dirty.

Thank you for the loan
Of this vast and beautiful
Land, so we could make a
Mockery of its beauty
And run through it
With oil pipelines
And endless highways
So that the restless
May roam Forever
And write
On The Road
and
Grapes of Wrath
and
Shake Yer Moneymaker.
Thank you for Robert Johnson
And the Reverend Gary Davis
Thank you for Elizabeth Cotten
And for Dink, may she never
Be Forgotten!
Thank you for Old Ma Rainey and
Thank you for Dean Moriarty
Thank you for Townes Van Zandt
And the Thunderbird Bum Wine
With which to toast 'em!
And thank you for Wolfy and coyotes
And the giant paws of black big cats
That leave pawprints around my camp
In sight of all, but seen by none.
They are mostly hunted and dead now
The finks and the JimJims didn't dare
Let them live in their brutal honest
Bloody vitality any longer. 

Thank you for the rebels, 
For there has to be some good
Left in the world.
Thank you for the free thinkers
The drinkers
The shooters and weepers.
Thank you for the free breathers
The questioners, the tree climbers
The tarot card readers
That see the hanged man
Yet fear him not. 
Thank you for the socially anxious
For whom social distancing is a breeze
They shall inherit the shaking bare
Bones of this world, while the bold
Make merry in Valhalla, 
Lifting a tankard to the 
Deep fakes
The great lakes
The death of freedom
Under the guise of safety
The police state that
Tells ya how you may
Party
Walk
Work
Live
Die
Thank you for
Everything, even dreaming
That has been outlawed
As being not for the greater good!

Long live the American Dream!
The American Dream is dying!
Long live the American Dream!
It is in bed with the Devil
And it's children are all crying.

Thank you for the crackheads
That they still shuffle their
Own path
Thank you for the homeless
That sit lightly on this earth.
Thank you for the abandoned
The lost and the forsaked
Thank you for the mistrusting
The theorists and the 
'Different Take'
For they are the one eyed 
Eternal Fools
In the paradigm of the blind.
Where questioning is held
Perversely as s a sign
Of Evil
And all that goes along with it 

Show us your arms, Freeks!
Show us your Credentials!
Show us your cards
Your Q.R Codes
And your immunity
Titer differentials!
If we have the right
To Bare Arms
Do we have the 
Right to hide 'em?

Thank you for the demise
Of privacy
We are all much 
Safer
Now.
Thank you for
Firewalls
For the infinitely
Brave Cancellables
Thank you for the
New buffalo herd
That live
So we may have more
To kill.
Thank you for the 
Whistleblowers
That shone a 
Light on 
Mealy mouthed
Pinched faced
Supremacist
Christian
Ills.

Thank you for the
Soldiers
Whose battle is 
Not to fight.
Thank you for 
Inflation
Gas prices
And the long
Cold winter nights.

Thank you for the tustles
With the basement trolls.
Thank you for the City's hustle.
Thank you for the Past
With it's endless herds
Of leaded gas guzzling
Cars.
Thank you for Walt Disney
Niki Minaj
And all that's pretty.

Thank you for what
May be the worst 
Nightmare
That could ever be 
Cooked up
In the damaged psyches
Of the terminally
Greedy.

Thank you for the
Bores
The sanctimonious
And petty
Thank you for being on
The 'wrong side of history'!
It never felt so good to be
So bad!
Thank you for not giving
A fuck.
Thank you for a heart
That is glad!

Thank you for the 
Broken supply routes
The stationary semis
And the dockers
That want to sit
Not Strut upon the piers
Unloading
The missing plastic tat
That fills up the
Landfill poison
Pits
Thank you, 
Thank you

Thank you

For all of it!