The Day Before Thanksgiving
My friend Delores she’s 82 beautiful she is missing a few body parts doesn’t let that get in her way she makes money cleaning houses has a handsome lover named Jim he has one good leg she got a big turkey for 8 dollars at Shoprite invited some people made 3 kinds of cookies including pumpkin oatmeal my friend Delores says she’s grateful for what she has for what she imagines tomorrow will be for the time she danced with Rudy Vallee cute cheap bastard she said grateful for dancing with Jim on Fridays when he can come to visit his one good leg is better than two said Delores for her leopard skin coat she found when she cleaned out an empty house for her five children some of them call her for the dollar store she found her favorite biscuit mix and it was a dollar for her mother god was she fun said Delores she had a bar in Harlem five husbands maybe six her mother danced every day of her life. So does Delores.
postscript (As for me, because this poem is about Delores and me, and the day before Thanksgiving, I am grateful to have friends like Delores who come over on the day before Thanksgiving and I give thanks I have always given thanks for their stories.)