Thursday, November 27, 2003 - Apache Junction, Arizona, USA
THANKSGIVING GRACE
Please sit down to this our bounty
For we have reaped what we have sown
Now it sits before us groaning
To hear of truths so long unknown
Let us rouse our minds to hearken
To the way affairs have fallen
On the peoples that were foremost
When this epoch rushed to darken
Before the thunders of world war
Before the strife between us tore
Before the revolution’s roar
The English landed on this shore
They found a nation strong and proud
Farms built by Pawtuxet peoples
Homes and fields spread out before them
A land of plenty well endowed
They boarded ship and returned home
Reporting what they’d done and seen
They left behind a bitter seed
That took root in the fertile loam
Pawtuxet by the thousands died
A people cleansed from off the earth
All save one, the slave Squanto
The last remaining of their pride
Mayflower brought more Englishmen
Who viewed the dead and darkened homes
A blessing from their Christian God
Thanking him for selecting them
They thanked Him too for Squanto’s worth
The former slave who knew their speech
And freely taught them all the ways
To cultivate this new found earth
Years went by with celebration
The English peoples soon increased
They befriended the Wampanoag
Helping them expand their nation
But greed for land soon led to death
The Pequots, strong and powerful
Resisted slavery with the knife
And sacrificed their very breath
Village after village destroyed
All men, women, and children killed
Or captured to be sold as slaves
A future they could not avoid
The English again thanked their God
For making them so powerful
That they should be the Child of Light
By His will employing the rod
Even the Wampanoag , their friends
Would feel the sting of English greed
Divine Right tore them asunder
They found how quickly friendship ends
Their chieftain’s head placed on a pole
Where it remained for twenty years
Each English town gave God their thanks
Annually for the land they stole.
George Washington later proclaimed
One day of thanks to celebrate
Lincoln advanced Thanksgiving Day
And a new holiday was named
Of course on that exact same day
He ordered troops to fight the Sioux
Continuing in the same vein
What history books will not portray
I pray to you almighty Lord
Remove the blinders from our eyes
Forgive those who came before us
Don’t let this lesson be ignored
©2003 Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre
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