A Thanksgiving Remembered

A Thanksgiving Remembered

There’s pride and there’s gratitude.
You can’t be proud of what you’re given
just thankful for undeserved gifts
and so I am, as writing’s in there.
More to the point and for example,
the thanksgiving dinner attended
with extended family of in-laws,
most of whom I’d not met before,
and, the meal being about to descend,
we each in turn had to give thanks
and I, being caught unprepared,
spoke of how grateful I was for America,
together with reasons why and
finishing with a flourish about freedom.
The silence that followed was deafening.


Line Count: 15
Free Verse
For Thankful Poetry Contest, November 2020
Prompt: Write a short poem about thanksgiving and gratitude.