When I gave thanks

before addressing a plate loaded to the edges with all the fixings

I heard myself repeating the word abundance

in my litany of gratitude

this abundance of food

this abundance of goodness

showering me with unearned blessings

far more than needed or requested

bequeathed to some of us by an indiscriminate divinity

uninterested in tricky concepts like fairness and equilibrium

I'm so grateful for this abundance

is what I say when there's been another failure to distribute properly

when more more more arrives 

in a location already fully supplied

like sand to Arabia and coal to Newcastle

instead of where some some some 

would soothe the pain 

of those who don't have nearly enough

suffering scarcity at the hands of those with an abundance 

of everything

except compassion