Thanksgiving

from "Why I Might Go to the Next Football Game" by Denis Johnson

                                              i thought
that i would make a fine football-playing
poet, but now i know
it is better to be an old, breathing

man wrapped in a great coat in the stands, who
remains standing after each play, who knows
something, who rotates in his place
rasping over and over the thing

he knows: “whydidnhe pass? the other
end was wide open! the end
was wide open! the end was wide open . . . ”

* * *

from These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The wind was blowing, but not too hard, and everyone was so happy and gay for it was only twenty degrees below zero and the sun shone.

* * *

from "Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons" by Diane Wakoski

The relief of putting your fingers on the keyboard,
as if you were walking on the beach
and found a diamond
as big as a shoe;

* * *

from The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

But Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.