A Family Thanksgiving
Weekly Scribblings #44: Eye of the Hurricane
https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/2020/11/weekly-scribblings-44-eye-of-hurricane.html
Thanksgiving dinner
Campbell to my right, red faced
Conrad to the left
Me, a captive audience
The eye of the hurricane
đŠ đŠ đŠ đŠ đŠ đŠ đŠ
I’m always seated between them,
my brothers causing the mayhem.
Cam to the right,
left sits his brother.
đŠ
I’m trapped in my chair by the turkey.
The one on the right being smirky.
Campbell’s face is as red
as the cranberry spread…
from our mother.
đŠ
Insulting voices get heated.
Campbell’s angry, and just won’t stay seated.
Conrad keeps his poise.
Foul words Campbell employs…
I wish I were anyplace other.
đŠ
“Shut up,” shouts my niece, “Uncle Cam,”
“you’re begging a face full of yam!”
This goes on every year
and it’s totally clear, it’s Thanksgiving…
just like any other.
đŠ
But, I'm always asking them why,
as Cam flings a seasoned thigh,
am I always the one,
every dinner bar none,
to sit in the eye...
of the hurricane?
©2020 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved
Oof. Sounds really stressful. Thankfully I haven't had a Thanksgiving like that. I'd have some serious indigestion no matter how the food was.
ReplyDeleteHa! With turkey legs and yams being tossed around it would be hard to eat!
DeleteIn spite of the 'fighting and posturing' around the Thanksgiving table, I absolutely love the way you wrote it!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I like the word you used for it, "posturing." Everyone knows at least one person who does it!
Deletehaha Love 'Cam flings a seasoned thigh' and love the end You painted quite a picture here of being the eye of the hurricane at thanks giving dinner Hope it's not too bad though
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the thigh hit anyone? If he got hit with the yams, maybe the thigh was thrown back, and started a family food fight! Adults turn into juveniles again once they come home.
DeleteMy mother always said "No one can walk on you unless you first lie down". Choose another seat!! (and let me know if that works! lol)
ReplyDeleteThat's a very wise saying! Did your mother have more sage advice? We need all we can get these days!
DeleteA challenging thanksgiving, guess there are those also
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving is not a tradition here đčđč in Trinidad&Tobago
Muchđlove
No, I guess it's an American thing, in the traditional turkey dinner way, although I know Canada has a Thanksgiving Day, not sure if they eat the same things though!
DeleteBest to refuse to sit between them next year.
ReplyDeleteEasy to say, but I guess even seating arrangements can be set in stone, as it were, by the older generation.
DeleteI feel I should commiserate, but what I did was giggle.
ReplyDeleteI can see it would be funny outside the family, and maybe someday inside.
DeleteHa....happy families !!They say you can choose your friends but you cant choose your family I knew of a family who had five children and it was arranged that they all came separately on Christmas Day because of the conflict.
ReplyDeleteThat really is too sad. It's true that family members are necessarily people you'd be friends with though, some have such different values than yourself.
DeleteWhen I first read this piece, I almost laugh at the interactions. Then I read it again, and the speaker's pain and frustration wiped the smirk of my face. I know family dynamics can be... bothersome and ruthless, especially when the whole clan is in the same room, but that doesn't take away from how frustrating and exhausting the whole thing is. The speaker's wariness is clear and vast. It makes me wonder why she keeps attending this reunions, then I answer my own inquiry: family.
ReplyDeleteWe do keep doing things because of family, don't we? I think sometimes it's healthier if we don't, but then so many others would be either angry or hurt.
DeleteIndeed...
DeleteFamilies, especially sibs, are sometimes like that. Happily friction wasn't part of my childhood but arose in adulthood, me and my best friend brother became estranged...
ReplyDeleteNext year I think you should ask for a different seating arrangement!
Kind regards
Anna :o]
I'm sorry to hear that. We can't pick our relatives, and sometimes they just aren't who we'd want as friends.
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