Buckle your Hats

 

The Pilgrim’s classic

buckle hat is fiction.

No buckle hat ever existed

and no Pilgrim ever

wore one.

 

A buckle-hatted,

white male,

standing a long table

thanking the Natives

for not letting them die.

 

It is, however, that image

that so permeates the

Thanksgiving Holiday,

that we simply accept the

myth as canon and eat.

 

I imagine that Pilgrim winking

to the other Pilgrim’s

the whole time, nudging others

with a knowing wry smile,

saying, “Thanks, but we’ll take it from here”.

 

It is our nature to believe

the legend over the truth,

since legends are often far more

interesting than the cold,

hard facts.

 

We’re a culture built on myth,

mysteries and stories,

ready to believe there’s a monster

under the mountain, belching

lava and destruction, rather than the truth.

 

Despite our mythologies,

we are thankful,

for those that abide by the truth,

and keep us from running off cliffs

in panicked frenzies.

 

In our buckle-hats,

waving muskets after vicious turkeys,

as the Natives point, and laugh, as

we careen over the edge of the

abyss, towards legend.

 

Happy Thanksgiving 2023