Thanksgiving Prayer by William Burroughs

    To John Dillinger and hope he is still alive.
     
    Thanksgiving Day November 28 1986

 
Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shat out through wholesome
American guts.
 

Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.
 

Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.
 

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.
 

Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.
 

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.
 

Thanks for the KKK.
 

For nigger-killin’ lawmen,
feelin’ their notches.
 

For decent church-goin’ women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.
 

Thanks for “Kill a Queer for
Christ” stickers.
 

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.
 

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.
 

Thanks for a country where
nobody’s allowed to mind their
own business.
 

Thanks for a nation of finks.
 

Yes, thanks for all the
memories– all right let’s see
your arms!
 

You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.
 

Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.

 
 
0012-william-burroughs-

‘Just Haiku’ and other Haiku by Joe Brennand

‘Just Haiku’

Basho’s deep north
a hermit crab walks
from side to side

on the shore
where the tsunami hit
a hermit crab

spring horizon
ripples of sunlight
on the shore

frost in the air
you see both sides
of the argument

departing summer
one pebble
skims the lake

mobile library
a ladybird eats fallen raindrops
from the leaf

a fox searches
upturn bins
stars twinkling again

Mocking bird
I am diagnosed
with dyslexia

Afternoon thunder
twins
in your ultrasound

Joe Brennand

Joe Brennand Haiku

Haiku by Joe Brennand can be found on the Camel Saloon, Dead Snakes and Writer’s Haven