Basking

The Thanksgiving that was... and wasn't. I wouldn't have it any other way.

As I bask

In the glow of Thanksgiving,

The un-turkeyed Thanksgiving

The cranberry-less

Thanksgiving,

I see the cats

In a different light.

I see this morning

In a different light.

The woman in red

Is alive

Across the way

Ready to feed the ducks

When snow comes again.

As I bask

Despite the head cold,

As I bask in the glow

I am here

You are there

Turkeys and cranberries

Will most likely

Be on sale

This week.

The woman across the way

Awaits her ducks.

Aftermath

It seems the cranberries I tried to make into sauce, sweetened with orange juice, refused to be budged into sweetness.  Of course it may have helped if I'd used sweetened orange juice, or tasted the o.j. ahead of time. I assumed Whole Foods orange juice would be sweet.  The sauce may not be worth saving.  Some such things need to be let go... with grace.  Our ash tree?  Not so much.

This is the morning after,

The morning after the turkey,

After the cranberry sauce so sour

The leftover sauce

Will have to be doctored

For sweetness,

Perhaps baked into muffins.

The rest of the family

Still sleeps sound

In the light

Of late morning.

Pale blue sky

Highlights bare trees.

The lone backyard squirrel

Fluffs his tail

Runs up and down the ash tree.

The tree still survives

The borer:

Emerald green

From China.

We doctored the tree

For life

Last year.

It is still alive for us,

For the squirrel.

We may have to call it quits

On the cranberry sauce.

Thanksgiving requirements

There are requirements for Thanksgiving dinner.  Turkey... yes of course, though I understand there are many households which do not celebrate with turkey or cranberries in any form.  My daughter is vegetarian so we'll figure something with seitan for her.  Thanksgiving requires that there is something good for everyone, often involving memories of past Thanksgivings.  Usually it involves food... and lots of it.  My son will stay in Minnesota and celebrate up there.  He is also a fan of canned cranberry sauce with the ridges left in place.

We have figured the food

For Thursday. 

My beloved requires

Sweet potatoes mashed with orange juice.

I require pomegranate seeds and grapefruit

In the green salad.

Our daughter requires

Canned cranberry sauce

With the marks of the can

Left intact.

She also requires

That we eat at home this year.

Last year the refrigerator

Was in the living room.

We had no kitchen

To speak of

Then.

Now

We speak of it often.

A year*s time brings with it

A lot of change.

Still

Some things are required

To stay the same.