Poem for Wednesday and Homestead Farm Animals

Thanks
By W.S. Merwin

Listen
with the night falling we are saying thank you
we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you
we are standing by the water thanking it
smiling by the windows looking out
in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging
after funerals we are saying thank you
after the news of the dead
whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

over telephones we are saying thank you
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators
remembering wars and the police at the door
and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you
in the banks we are saying thank you
in the faces of the officials and the rich
and of all who will never change
we go on saying thank you thank you

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

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We took the van in for scheduled service, so Paul worked from home, and after lunch we went to pick it up behind a crowded mall where everyone apparently went to start pre-Black Friday shopping since I have gotten emails from everyone from Macy's to Kohl's to Michael's telling me that I can get Black Friday sale prices NOW NOW NOW. (If I owe you something from the post office, it's going to have to wait till I ship out holiday stuff because I could not face the mob in the parking lot today.) Have some Homestead Farm animals from apple season instead:















Again it was a beautiful day, slightly cooler than Monday but still gorgeous to be outside -- I saw three bunnies and four deer in our neighborhood, including the young stag. On Wednesday, of course, we are being threatened with anywhere from one to eight inches of snow depending on which way the storm tracks. We are supposed to pick up the kids from College Park around lunchtime so we are hoping the weather cooperates. TV tonight was The Flash, and we watched The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain which we had never seen and found very amusing!