Thursday, October 29, 2020

Election Promises––Mark Belletini

 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.