Tryptophan

My mother called tonight
just to tell me that
she'd cancelled our Thanksgiving
but had a frozen turkey
for me.

"Grandma's been beating
on the walls at five a.m.
and I've been searching
for a hole big enough
for me."

We still have some things in common.

My grandmother's reverting
to a child, my mother's rebelling
and I am growing older
exponentially
by the minute.

And so I'll join the ranks
of the hapless twenty-somethings
deprived of a tired seat on the couch
for the Dallas and Detroit games.

Alas, the last holiday I held sacred
dies.