Happy Thanksgiving 2020 Poem by Jim Yerman

With the pandemic still taking lives…with our country so divided…
where half the people think wearing masks is fruitless and misguided…

What do we have to be thankful for in this year…2020?
If we look to the innocence of children…it turns out…there is plenty.

I love listening to children…they are innocent and bright…
After being thankful for they parents and their family their innocence takes flight.

It's not surprising food is next…the things that feed their hungry bellies…
They are thankful for chicken nuggets, cookies, ice cream
and peanut butter sandwiches…made with jelly.

They are thankful for mermaids, for toilet paper, for rainbows…
for playgrounds with swings and slides.
They are thankful for the people who make shoes…
and relatives who give piggyback rides.

They are thankful for all the little things they see with their big eyes…
for ants and lizards and caterpillars…for bees and butterflies.

They are thankful for their house, for music…for TV and I-Pads…
One little boy listed Netflix first…and second was Mom and Dad.

Another little girl after being thankful for her parents…both her father and her mother
added, although she was praying for a puppy…she was thankful she got a little brother…

Yes the pandemic is still raging and our country is more divided than it ever was before
but there is still so much in this wonderful world for us to be thankful for….

Since 2020 has been so crazy…a ride so unpredictable…so bizarre…so wild
this year I'll be giving thanks…as if I was a child.

I'll close my eyes…I'll fold my hands and even if it's only for a little while
I'll give thanks for all the little things this year that made me smile.

Yes, for a little while all the little things I will try to name…
With the hope that this Thanksgiving…everyone else can do the same.