Artwork © Luis Lázaro Tijerina

 

Giving Thanks (In College, This Time)

Ever since I was a child
Thanksgiving gave kudos to
“Family. Shelter.”
I said these things carelessly
I just wanted to chow down.

The eighteenth time around
Things switched up.

I guess I had never realized
How thankful I was to see
My cousins growing taller
Learning words and phrases
Becoming picky eaters
And becoming people of their own.

I caught myself, this time
Standing before one of them
My hand shot out by my waist
“The last time I saw you, you were this—”
Oh my God. There’s no way I just said that.

I guess I had just never realized
How thankful I was to smell
The food my family cooked
Wafting throughout the house
Illuminated by the oven light
I watched my Dad prepare it for us.

It really beats the dining hall food
I’m certain it’ll be good
And I’ll be thinking about it
Long after I go back
Thank God for this food.

So much has changed
But not much has been altered
Perhaps it’s the love that’s
Always
Been
There
Making itself known
Perhaps I’m growing up
Into someone
Who wishes they could
Always
Be
There.

 

Allyson Kling is a university student from Bucks County, PA. She spends most of her free time consuming and producing art, whether that means listening to music, reading novels, tearing up over insane harmonies, playing percussion instruments, or writing in her sticker-covered notebooks. She is currently a self-identified “jack of all trades, master of none,” and is currently working to become a “jack of all trades, master of maybe one or two.” That would be sick.

Luis Lázaro Tijerina is a military historian and military theorist. He is a published author. Mr. Tijerina admit that he writes poetry and paints easel works as an outlet for the more intense work that he does from a professional position.