Poetry Monday (and Thursday): Thanks

Thanks

Listen

with the night falling we are saying thank you

 we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings

 we are running out of the glass rooms

 with our mouths full of food to look at the sky

 and say thank you

 we are standing by the water thanking it

 smiling by the windows looking out

 in our directions

 back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging

 after funerals we are saying thank you

 after the news of the dead

 whether or not we knew them we are saying thank you

 over telephones we are saying thank you

 in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators

 remembering wars and the police at the door

 and the beatings on stairs we are saying thank you

 in the banks we are saying thank you

 in the faces of the officials and the rich

 and of all who will never change

 we go on saying thank you thank you

 with the animals dying around us

 our lost feelings we are saying thank you

 with the forests falling faster than the minutes

 of our lives we are saying thank you

 with the words going out like cells of a brain

 with the cities growing over us

 we are saying thank you faster and faster

 with nobody listening we are saying thank you

 we are saying thank you and waving

 dark though it is

W.S. Merwin