Thanksgiving Love Prayer
by Odin Roark

Isn’t easy to understand another’s need
Where tradition’s expectations
Have obviously failed your desire for gratification
Rendering little relief to the discomfort of
Cracks in your otherwise perfect foundation
You know
The inflexible treatise you’ve been taught
“the way it should be”

Yes

Some of us are separate from everyday definition
Perhaps not by choice
But by instinctual need
Where outside persuasion is a weak option
When need trumps pressure
And “have to” will not be blinded by “this way”

You’re not expected to comprehend
But to accept truthful behavior
Tolerance that makes connections that last
Versus those of short term stroking of one’s ego

Yet

How quick some are
To deny honesty
As if such convictions were foreign
To the lexicon of natural expression
Perpetuating man’s survival of the species

Perhaps from such rejection of reality
The next world war will emanate
Where faiths of obstinacy will finally
Make intolerance a battle cry
Armed with weapons we’ve not even
Invented yet

So…

What might a Thanksgiving be like
Void of prayer over a roasted turkey
And instead a collective resolve
Spoken to the global heart
Asking tolerance to become the key element for connection
Proclaiming respect of another’s belief serves peace
That acknowledging “My way or the highway”
Is just another way of inviting
The inevitable retort…

A bugle blast for “Charge”

That’s what Love says

Amen