Ode To A Turkey

When I was a young turkey, new to the coop,
My big brother Mike took me out on the stoop;
Then he sat me down, and he spoke real slow,
And he told me there was something that I had to know.
His look and his tone I will always remember,
When he told me of the horrors of ‘Black November’...

“Come about August, now listen to me,
Each day you’ll get six meals instead of just three,
And soon you’ll be thick, where once you were thin,
And you’ll grow a big rubbery thing under your chin.

And then one morning, when you’re warm in your bed,
In’ll burst the farmer’s wife, and hack off your head;
Then she’ll pluck out all your feathers so you’re bald ’n pink,
And scoop out all your insides and leave ya lyin’ in the sink.”

Well, the rest of his words were too grim to repeat,
I sat on the stoop like a winged piece of meat;
And decided on the spot that to avoid being cooked,
I’d have to lay low and remain overlooked.

I began a new diet of nuts and granola,
High-roughage salads, juice and diet cola;
And as they ate pastries, chocolates and grapes,
I stayed in my room doing Jane Fonda tapes;

I maintained my weight of two pounds and a half,
And tried not to notice when the bigger birds laughed;
But ’twas I who was laughing, under my breath,
As they chomped and they chewed, ever closer to death;

And sure enough when Black November rolled around,
I was the last turkey left in the entire compound;
So now I’m a pet in the farmer’s wife’s lap;
I haven’t a worry, so I eat and I nap.

She held me today, while sewing and humming,
And smiled at me and said, “Christmas is coming!”

QuotaBills
Wine is bottled poetry. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Music is the poetry of the air. - Jean Paul Richter

Love is the poetry of the senses. - Honore de Balzac

Poetry should only occupy the idle. - Lord Byron

A poem begins with a lump in the throat. - Robert Frost

Poetry is what gets lost in translation. - Robert Frost

A poem is never finished, only abandoned. - Paul Valery

Here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock. - William Shakespeare

You campaign in poetry; you govern in prose. - Mario Cuomo

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. - Robert Frost

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat. - Robert Frost

Pure mathematics is the poetry of logical ideas. - Albert Einstein

No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks. - St. Ambrose

Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance. - Robert Frost

A peacock that rests on his feathers is just another turkey. - Dolly Parton

The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. - Walt Whitman

Prose is a museum, where all the old weapons of poetry are kept. - T.E. Hulme

For all that has been - thanks.
For all that will be - yes. - Dag Hammarskjold

History is a cyclic poem written by time upon the memories of man. - Percy Bysshe Shelley

We take for granted the things that we should be giving thanks for. - Unknown

Cooking Tip: Wrap turkey leftovers in aluminum foil and throw them out. - Nicole Hollander

Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable. - W H Auden

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. - Robert Frost

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering. - Robert Frost

Thanksgiving is the one occasion each year when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty. - Michael Dresser

Stuff: What people do on Thanksgiving: First to the turkey, and then to themselves - Daffynitions joe-ks.com

The dark night was the first book of poetry, and the constellations were the poems. - Chet Raymo

Poetry spills from the cracks of a broken heart, but flows from one which is loved. - Christopher P. Rubero

Go see that turkey for yourself, and see for yourself why you shouldn't see it. - Samuel Goldwyn

There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope. - Oscar Wilde

My mother gave me my drive, but my father gave me my dreams. Thanks to him, I could see a future. - Liza Minnelli

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving. - W.T. Purkiser

We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction. - Harry Ironside

Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea. - John Updike

The greatest ideas, the most profound thoughts, and the most beautiful poetry are born from the womb of silence. - William A. Ward

My favourite poem is the one that starts, "Thirty days hath September" because it actually tells you something. - Groucho Marx

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week. - Charles Darwin

Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully on canvas or write wonderful poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. - Donald Trump

When my wife says she'll be ready in 5 minutes, I know I have just enough time to fly to space and write a poem on the moon before we go. - Mike Vanatta

Got no checkbooks, got no banks,
Still I'd like to express my thanks -
I got the sun in the mornin'
And the moon at night. - Irving Berlin

see also Christmas, Food & Turkey Sections
Going Cold Turkey
Grandma’s Beautiful Pies
Happy Thanksgiving, Y’all!
How To Cook A Turkey
Redneck Thanksgiving
Redneck Turkey Shoot
Run, Turkey, Run!
Thanksgiving Harvest Time
Too Much Turkey
Turkey Recipe
Turkey Weather Forecast
’Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving

Ode To A Turkey

Remembering the horrors of Black November

25-Jan-2022