My Vote

I will vote today:

for intelligence, not fear;

for understanding, not anger;

for reason, not rhetoric.

I will vote today

for history and its lessons,

for thoughtful assemblies,

not inflammatory mobs.

I vote for peace and justice,

not guns and violence,

for safety for my children and their children,

and for others who come here seeking that.

I vote for forgiveness and kindness, 

not punishment and rejection,

for caring over cash,

for prayer over profit.

I do not listen for the loudest voice,

or the most abhorrent accusations.

I vote for what’s good about my country,

though it may still be flawed.

I vote for the dreams there, 

for all that still could be, 

for the builders, not the breakers,

for the ones who still believe.  

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Educated. A citizen. I read. I vote.

These advantages should insure

a more-or-less sane existence.

No.

Advantages are buffeted into liabilities

by the prevailing winds of two years’ insanity.

The elected con man

owes his position to

anger and fear, to the disadvantaged,

who bit the hands that fed them,

who embraced the slick sales pitch,

who sold their livelihoods

for a sack of worthless promises.

Jack-and-the-beanstalk all over again.

Who knows what angry giant they've

awakened?

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Too much, too many

things to process,   

to adequately pursue.   

Shootings and killings,

Political wrestling,

domestic and global.   

Elections and 

over the top ads.  

Troops at the border 

with razor-wire and guns,

throngs of desperate people 

with nowhere else to turn. 

Republicans turn on each other 

(is that, perhaps, good?) and 

Democrats are asking ‘one last time’ 

for money—every day. 

Sexual harassments are 

a commonplace, and 

college football is the new football 

to toss around in conversation:

a good metaphor for a world   

obsessed with offense and defense. 

Offense is winning.