Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986  

"One of van Sant's first films was an award-winning student short of Burroughs' The Discipline of D.E., and in 1990 he made a short film called "A Thanksgiving Prayer" taken from Bill's CD Dead City Radio."--William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible (1992) by Barry Miles

"Thanks for the wild turkey and the passenger pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts.

Thanks for a continent to despoil and poison.

Thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger.

Thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin leaving the carcasses to rot.

Thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes.

Thanks for the American dream,

To vulgarize and to falsify until the bare lies shine through.

Thanks for the KKK.

For nigger-killin' lawmen, feelin' their notches.

For decent church-goin' women, with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces.

Thanks for "Kill a Queer for Christ" stickers.

Thanks for laboratory AIDS.

Thanks for Prohibition and the war against drugs.

Thanks for a country where nobody's allowed to mind the own business.

Thanks for a nation of finks.

Yes, thanks for all the memories-- all right let's see your arms!

You always were a headache and you always were a bore.

Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams."

--"Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986" (1989) by William S. Burroughs