Schooled in the Art of the Blessing

Out on Thanksgiving Day

For a walk from the Airbnb

Near  a golf course

In Greensboro, North Carolina,

I address an oncoming stranger

With a driver in his hand:

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Grace and peace 

Be with you.

Thank you.

No:

When I say, “‘Grace

And peace be with you,’

You say, ‘Grace

And peace be with you.’”

OK.  

Grace 

And peace be with you.

For some, thanksgiving is not enough;

There must be grace and peace also.

For others, they are the same

As the sun shines on a found poem

And a heron alights from the water trap

To land on a log near a pond

As old as god.