Election Promises – by Mark Belletini
I hear the polls
are going to be open on Tuesday.
All day.
Good. I certainly intend to go to them.
I certainly invite you to go to them and vote too.
But today I say the polls
Are not just open on Tuesday.
I say they are open every day.
Every hour. Even here. Even now.
‘Right now I am going to vote
for the robin’s egg sky,
the vanilla clouds,
the purple shadow spreading
under the gingko tree,
I am going to vote for tulips and redbuds,
I am going to vote for love,
That doesn’t have to run in someone else’s circles
in order to be love.
I’m going to vote the homeless into homes.
I’m going to vote the uneducated into classrooms
that teach them in the way they learn best,
not the way that would be most convenient.
I’m going to vote the sick into healing.
I’m going to vote the lost into belonging.
I’m going to vote, right now,
for the right to dream of a world
where the word politics
doesn’t stop me in my tracks,,
And where the word honor still
has a few good meanings left.
I’m going to vote right now
for the power of free people
to actually be free,
No matter who they are,
no matter who has abandoned them,
no matter who hates them.
I actually am going to vote for love,
I am going to vote for truthfulness as the norm,
not the exception.
I’m going to vote for a world
that doesn’t vote for killing, control and swagger,
I’m going to vote for you.
I’m going to vote for me.
Right now. Right here. Silently. But for real.