Thanksgiving is a time for students to travel home, reunite with families, and, simply put, veg out. It is a peaceable period of rest for the body, spirit, and mind. Except, of course, for us dutiful Odyssey creators. Writer's block is a common chronic side effect of too much turkey and green bean casserole. So, for this week's posting, I chose to go down bit of a different route: I'm going to try my hand at poetry. And what else shall my muse be except for the hell that most Americans have endured after the time for food comas has passed: Black Friday.
Poem #1: Sonnet 11/24
(Inspired by: Shakespeare's Sonnet 130)
Black Friday’s eyes are nothing like the sun.
“It’ll be fun,” my friends said.
Only 6 a.m., yet I yearn to be done,
To go home and slip into my cozy, little bed.
It is like a car crash; you hate to watch, yet cannot look away;
Are these what make up America’s peaks?
Impatient dads to-and-fro do sway
As a mother rushes between boutiques.
Wrappers affix each gift with a bow,
Christmas music the undistinguished sound,
As, for a game system, to shoppers have a go,
And one smacks the other to the ground.
With sights and sounds fit for a fair,
I ask, “Why the hell did I come there?”
Poem #2: Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
(Inspired by Dylan Thomas' poem of the same name)
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Waiting in procession 'til dawn of day.
Rage, rage against the dawning of the light.
Through wise men choose to sit home in affright,
Because crowding in malls is too passe
Do not go gentled into that good night.
Crazed moms for game stations put up a fight,
Joyful children in mind on Christmas day.
Rage, rage against the dawning of the light.
Bastards hiding their treasures out of sight,
While you're pushed and elbowed out of the way,
Do not good gentle into that good night.
Huddled masses who choose burdensome blight
For on-sale jeans and Calvin undies--hooray!
Rage, rage against the dawning of the light.
One brisk day a year consumers choose plight
Over sanity, rest; damned Black Friday!
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dawning of the light.
Poem #3: The Red Wheelbarrow (From Menards)
(Inspired by William Carlos Williams' The Red Wheelbarrow)
so many fight
for
a red wheel
barrow
at an 11 percent
rebate
because their old one
broke.