![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Linda-by-Sheila-IMG_0795-EDIT-2-268x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Time to dust off the china, chipped and mismatched
\nlike us, incomplete yet serviceable
\nbroken and lost over the years
\nand added to, piece by piece
\npartial sets of dinnerware entrusted to me for safekeeping
\nthe salvage of shipwrecks and divorces
\nfairy tales with bitter endings told in bread-and-butter plates and gravy boats<\/p>\n
Dear Lord, forgive us
\nOurs is not the candle-lit table pictured on the cover of Pottery Barn
\nWe are not those people caught in a moment of laughter, raising Riedels for a toast,
\nthe plastic turkey posed on a hand-painted platter made in Portugal or Poland, some distant oppressed country our ancestors fled
\nin search of freedom and a job<\/p>\n
So bring your new girlfriend, your old boyfriend
\nBring the guy next store
\nManny? sure, he\u2019s family
\nBring your ex husbands — bring my ex husbands —
\nWe\u2019re a family of steps leading where
\nI don\u2019t know but bring your excess baggage
\nif you don\u2019t mind sleeping with it
\nwe\u2019ve got plenty of room<\/p>\n
Dogs? Yeah,
\nthey\u2019re family too, and so much more thankful
\nYet they too will show their teeth
\nbefore the day is done
\nsnarling and quarreling over
\nslivers of fat and the
\nwishbone gets thrown out with
\nthe trash
\nagain<\/p>\n
Come one, come all, for yet another dysfunctional Thanksgiving!<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve got a car that will make it
\nif your battered heart can take the journey
\nover the river and through the woods
\nto grandmother\u2019s house where the smell of roast turkey
\nlike regret,
\nwhets the desire for what never was<\/p>\n
Let’s give thanks for the miracle of water turned into wine
\nfermented grape to ease the heart\u2019s burn
\nproof that Jesus loves us every one
\nPass the stuffing please, and the gravy
\na little lumpy but heartfelt
\nplenty of God\u2019s grace to go around<\/p>\n
Under the table the dogs pray
\nwith pure and trusting hearts
\nwhile outside in the forest bears settle in for a long sleep
\nand a generation of acorns buried and forgotten
\nwait for spring.<\/p>\n
— Linda Collison, 2012<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another dysfunctional Thanksgiving! Time to dust off the china, chipped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[621,472,622,620],"class_list":["post-9723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-poetry","tag-relationships","tag-thanksgiving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9724,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9723\/revisions\/9724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}