William S Burroughs' Thanksgiving Prayer (video)

Here's a Thanksgiving Eve re-post from last year, Gus Van Sant's film of William Burroughs' poem Thanksgiving Prayer: download mpg video or youtube it. And before the croaky one gets underway in dispensing fake gratitude for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams, I'd like to genuinely thank all the readers of this blog and the listeners to WFMU. May your family go easy on you this Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Prayer
by William S Burroughs

Thanks for the wild turkey and
the passenger pigeons, destined
to be shit out through wholesome
American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil
and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a
modicum of challenge and
danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to
kill and skin leaving the
carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves
and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,
To vulgarize and to falsify until
the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen,
feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women,
with their mean, pinched, bitter,
evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for
Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the
war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where
nobody's allowed to mind the
own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the
memories-- all right let's see
your arms!

You always were a headache and
you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest
betrayal of the last and greatest
of human dreams.

Comments

[\_escarpment]

"Oh, by the way, I was being sarcastic!"

[Jeffersonic]

I've always thought this was a great prayer and I tend to include it on any mix C.D. that I'm going to force on people around this time of year. Gee Whiz,
I love the line "for decent church goin' women, with
their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces." I generally try to avoid holidays with relatives, but every once in a while, I find myself sitting down to dinner with people who are "all messed up on the Lord". While
they wisely avoid calling on me to recite a prayer
before dinner, I've often fantasized about delivering
the Burroughs prayer.

Another one I've always liked:

"If there is a benevolent entity lurking out in the
cosmos, beyond my comprehension, and it had something to do with the apparently fortuitous events that led to my sitting in front of this plate of food, then thanks!"

Yet another:

"We're trapped in a swirling vortex of chaos and
anything can happen at any moment."

[poesboes]

Love the William S. video!