Even a pumpkin pie
can be an act of war,
such aggression that
no one can remain
seated for long.

Someone didn’t make the family recipe
or someone else did, or someone
bought a pie and spiked it with bourbon
(a pumpkin pie? who does that?)

We gather together to say we are thankful
(to whom, and for what?), or even
because November is coming to an end

and we have to get some
gray misery out of the way
before we lurch forward
to Christmas.