& as you bow your heads to pray

& as you bow your heads to pray /      pray a silent prayer around a chicken who lies motionless before your hungry eyes /     dead dead as your dreams /      as your hopes / dead as that silent prayer that dies more & more each day / that no ears will ever share that that dead chicken      / which you in your shame dare to call a turkey will never hear not that god /    lost in the heavens eating real turkey who to you now pray for blessings will never hear / i wish you a happy thanksgiving. & as you bow your heads to pray /      pray a silent prayer for the little boy who dances in the snow / barefooted he loves to greet new falling snow & has no shoes & hopes that santa on christmas eve will slide down the chimney of his tenement slum & in his stockings which he has hung by the fire escape / o so carefully as not to tear them any more will find them filled with little hopes & tiny dreams & beneath that narrow leaf       / which he in his shame dares call a tree / a christmas tree santa will leave toys of wooden soldiers & plastic dolls filled with love for him and his ( & does not know that santa nods on roofs & climbs on fire escapes & snatches pocket-books / & leaves no wooden soldiers or plastic dolls filled with love for him & his beneath his narrow leaf) / i wish him a merry christmas. & as you bow your heads to pray /      pray please pray a silent prayer for the poor old woman who sits by the stove / to keep warm as she looks out her window / watching the falling snow & for the numbers' man / she waits       / waits silently for steam to rush through rusty pipes / for santa to stop his nodding for you to stop your prayer /      open your eyes & boooooooo away the mouse that nibbles on your chicken ( there are too many prayers that need be prayed for all/     all to be done at just one meal) & waits /       she silendy waits for god to hear your prayers / after dinner / / i wish her a happy new year.