Thursday, November 25th 2010

10:37 AM

Thanksgiving Day, Nov 28,1986 first appeared in William S Burrough’s Tornado Alley. Gus Van Sant made this short film of Burroughs reading the text in 1990.

Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986 by William S. Burroughs
For John Dillinger
In hope he is still alive


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 carcass to rot
thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes
thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through
thanks for the KKK, for nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches, for decent church-going 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 is allowed to mind his own business
thanks for a nation of finks — yes,
thanks for all the memories all right, lets 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.

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  1. kleptosrbetterlovers reblogged this from suicideblonde and added:
    I’m actually not cynical. But I am a realist.
  2. whorangthatbell reblogged this from suicideblonde
  3. waysiancat reblogged this from suicideblonde
  4. allosaurusmeat reblogged this from suicideblonde and added:
    Oh, Burroughs. I do love his work, so. He’s not always the bleakest side of the story, but he acknowledges it is there....
  5. mioh reblogged this from suicideblonde
  6. sisyphean-happiness reblogged this from suicideblonde
  7. needsanap reblogged this from suicideblonde
  8. faithprovesnothing reblogged this from suicideblonde
  9. sundays-end reblogged this from suicideblonde and added:
    Even though this is rather depressing I want to reblog it anyway because it is great poetry and it’s deep.
  10. solongmarianne reblogged this from suicideblonde and added:
    On the occasion of this most troubling of “holidays.”
  11. frenchytoast reblogged this from suicideblonde
  12. muhammadlelo reblogged this from suicideblonde
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  14. therewassomethingiforgottosay reblogged this from suicideblonde and added:
    happy thanksgiving !
  15. tumbledmygame reblogged this from suicideblonde
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  17. ginzuna reblogged this from suicideblonde