Goethe on Turkey Day

Dark Thanksgiving Day,

walking in a German cemetery.
More light! I pray.

Looking for a way
though the morass of history,
this dark Thanksgiving Day.

We'll have hell to pay,
we're dead already.—
More light! we pray.

I believe we’ll be OK,
but not because of anything I can see
this dark Thanksgiving Day.

When Goethe was dying, he
requested the curtains be drawn—
More light, he said—

soul shining like a ray
of hopeful sunlight on our grave
this dark Thanksgiving Day.
Light! we pray.