Poet Nicole Henares of San Francisco writes:

Thanksgiving Greetings
by Nicole Henares
for EB White

From this academic high school of plagiarized essaysand unidentifiable lunch meat, we send forth a cornucopia of greetings to students, vice-principals,to shadows from our old middle schools. Happy Thanksgiving to our secretaries who almost had to strike to get their dependents health insurance, to Walgreens employees without health insurance, to women with frozen faces from too much Botox, to stripsearched airline passengers, and all those who have gone vegan! We greet in particular warmth sunbathers in Northern California enjoying 80 degree weather while wondering what has happened to our first snow. Happy Thanksgiving Global Warming! Happy Thanksgiving to the blue states and other despised minorities on Fox News! Happy Thanksgiving to the cult of Psy-trance djs and women who can’t wear low-rise jeans! Greetings of the season to Muslims who run corner stores and the prisoners of Guatanomo Bay; chronic indigestion and diarrhea to practicers of torture! Greetings to those who can’t check their e-mail and to slam poets who can’t rhyme with pumpkin. Happy Thanksgiving to the ignored, the confused, the obese. Joy to the writers of reality shows recorded live. Greetings to people with lactose intolerance; greetings to growers of garnish, to morticians of mirth, and to customer service agents in India enduring steady streams of complaints for .25 cents an hour. Happy Thanksgiving to the old veterans asleep on our sidewalks! Happy Thanksgiving to people who can’t stay in the same room with a Republican! We greet, too, those economically struggling on SSI in Section 8 Housing this TurkeyDay, the gutter punk duennas of Golden Gate Park in fog and biting rain, and the lonely on Craig’s List personals who get no responses to their ads. Happy Thanksgiving to people who grow organic gardens in the city; Happy Thanksgiving to farmers who allow their fowl free range! Greetings to Nano Ipods plus a download of Adam Sandler’s Thanksgiving Song. Joyous salutations to BMW owners whose road-etiquette isundeserving of their vehicle! Happy Thanksgiving tothe beleaguered, the cranky, the morose; Joy to all metrosexuals and transgenders. We greet the Secretaries-designate, the President-elect of Iraq: Happy Thanksgiving, I wish you peace, freedom, democracy, and no Halliburton! Happy Thanksgiving to couples blithe in therapy! Greetings to people whose airlines lose their luggage, to people who write a letter and pay .37 cents to mail it, to parents who can’t afford $10 for their children to see the latest Harry Potter movie. We greet ministers of Bush’s Christian Coalition who can’t think of a moral about Michael Brown, to David Letterman who can’t pick on Oprah until after she appears on his show. Greetings, too, to the inhabitants of planets Easter Bunny and Santa Claus; our global warming won’t bother you! And last, we greet all snowboarders on the incline of artificial slopes in the late afternoon. Happy Thanksgiving, skiers! Puff, snow! Wane to dusk, sky! Blow brown leaves, wind! Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good day!