Thanksgiving Poem by Lyndsay Ayliffe

Leah's sister, maybe..? HAPPY Thanksgiving to you all!

This is an unexpected Thanksgiving poem. If you had started it with the SECOND stanza I would have reacted to it as a conventional poem - a List Poem, an inventory of discrete objects in your life. It's the opening stanza which adds an unusual attitude: it's a searching, quizzical attitude toward the repetition implicit in a holiday. You seem removed from the holiday spirit, wondering where and how you fit in. And your response seems to be - I'll dive right in and make the most of its spirit. And so you do - in the rest of the poem. But the wariness of that opening stanza lingers in my mind. I think this poem will haunt me as I sit in my twin sister's house surrounded my nephew and nieces, and their spouses and children, and the holiday runs its accustomed course.