For Thanksgiving, 2009

The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven
By Jack Prelutsky
From It’s Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky, Marylin Hafner (Illustrator)

The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.

It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with a deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.

It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there’d never been turkey before.

It blanketed every appliance,
it smeared every saucer and bowl,
there wasn’t a way I could stop it,
that turkey was out of control.

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I’d never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn’t been popped.

Amidst continued reports of library cutbacks and closures, I’m happy to share news of two Massachusetts’ communities that have opened beautiful new public libraries.

On November 8th, a fifteen year effort in the city of Cambridge culminated in the opening of a new addition to its main library. I visited along with scores of residents and other well-wishers. The place was packed, as you can see from the photo below!

And last month, a local business owner delivered what the Boston Globe described as a “a soaring 17,000 square-foot library with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, 56 computers, and white oak ribbing, a cedar-shingled senior center with a fieldstone fireplace and physical check-up room, and a town meeting hall with Romanesque pillars and a catering kitchen” to Townsend, a small community in the central part of the state.