Suck

Let us give thanks
for the people we know and love,
as well as those we know
and just sort of like
or occasionally tolerate,
and for our friends and relatives,
most of whom we can just barely
have a conversation with,
for they are the ground beneath our feet
in good times
and the rug pulled out from under us
in bad times
when they stand by
and watch us fall on our faces,
chuckling to themselves and saying,
"I knew all along that girl
was getting too big
for her britches."

Let us give thanks
for our daily distractions,
those little things
that keep our minds busy -
bad celebrity magazines,
books about natural disasters,
Monday Night Football,
Shark Week on the Discovery Channel
for these are the gentle winds
that blow us along,
their frenetic, cheery,
pop cultural breezes
whisking away the gloomy reality
of our pathetic little lives
and these are also the hurricane forces
that bend us mercilessly
when we're filled with existential angst
like a self-involved character
in a John Updike novel,
muttering to himself,
"Sportscenter sure has changed
since back in the day.
Man, I'm old."

Next ... More thankful words.