A Thanksgiving Prayer

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 their 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.

- William S. Burroughs