Jess Klein - New Thanksgiving Feast Lyrics

New Thanksgiving Feast

We traced our hands and made paper cutouts
We pasted feathers on
And we would shout out
I made a turkey
I made a headdress
I made a pilgrim's hat
Then it was recess
And the bell would ring
We'd run into the streets called
Iroquois, Council Rock, Cayuga
Those street signs hid the truth though

Dad put the football on
It felt like family
We'd eat the most we could
Pass out in front of the TV
Grandma and grandpa
They were from Russia
They wouldn't talk about
What it was like though
I think they would have died
If they had never tried
To come here
Another family knowin' that fear

Now I think about the English-Irish Servants
Africans they drug across in chains
Chinese and Italian families riding on the waves
While along the pitch pine highway
Near Plymouth Beach
A Wampanoag fights to keep his right to fish the sea
A Wampanoag fights to keep his right to fish the sea
When we all meet our Creator
Which will it be?
Paper cutouts and hollow shells
Or a new Thanksgiving feast
Or a new Thanksgiving feast

Out on an icy plain
Wrapped in blankets and beads
Elders with weathered faces
Faces that read like history
Say a prayer for all of those who've come to stand
And a prayer for those firing water cannons
It is a prayer for
The Creator

While on a football field
A man refuses to rise
To salute a country that would let his people die
And though the rage and fear
Swirl around him like a twister
He's committed to his brothers and his sisters
He's made a choice he knows
So peacefully he sits there

While along the chilly streets of Boston,
Charlotte, Seattle and DC
People pouring out in numbers never seen before
When we come to face our shadows
Shadows too angry to ignore
Are we gonna tell ourselves it's down to eitheror?
Or will we finally realize we're meant for something more?
When we all meet our Creator
Which will it be?
Towing the lines, pretending we're blind
Or a new Thanksgiving feast
Or a new Thanksgiving feast