Thanksgiving has long been the poet’s favorite national holiday because, in midst of the celebrations, people really do remember ~ sometimes ~ to stop for a moment to feel gratitude for what they have.

This sonnet is one of a series of seven inspired by the season.

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Recorded Reading (0:51): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tp2dezwcbi0ar5bsokirq/Thanksgiving-III.mp3?rlkey=ruodrl7yjrqns7bf1zfo5d7lh&dl=0

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Thanksgiving III

The woman had been deaf her whole life long
Whom I saw yesterday on the TV —
She’d never listened to a single song
Until the day modern technology

Discovered there’s a way to give her back
This irreplaceably wonderful sense
Of which she had known nothing but the lack —
Silence always around her, like a fence…

They sent her home — to listen, like a guest
Feast of our daily sounds invited by —
When they asked later which one she liked best,
She unashamedly began to cry

The moments, she said, that she holds most dear
Are those when she her children’s laughter hear

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This poet presently lives at a fraction of her nation’s poverty level.

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