Saying Thanks

Thanks by W. S. Merwin Listen with the night falling we are saying
thank you we are stopping on the bridges to bow for 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
looking out in different 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 looking up from tables we are saying thank you in
a culture up to its chin in shame living in the stench it has
chosen 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 back door and the beatings
on stairs we are saying thank you in the banks that use us we are
saying thank you with the crooks in office with the rich and
fashionable unchanged 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 like the earth 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