THE ELECTION IS RIGGED
blares the hand-painted sign beside the road
for every passing 4X4, SUV, BMW.
THE ELECTION IS
RIGGED—a neighbor, living on my street,
screams scam! Every time I pass,
scam! . . . scam! . . . scam! . . .
Man—I want to say—
you don’t even know me
and you insist we cannot play fair.
THE ELECTION, you cry, IS RIGGED
even before the first whistle
in the raucous, unruly, Saturday-celebrating stadium.
2
Remember the games we played as kids?
Throw an elbow, give a furtive kick, scratch—
sure, we wanted to win.
But, say it aloud or not,
we knew, victory “earned” by cheating
was a sham.
THE ELECTION IS RIGGED
Have the adults, in their games, lost
what we had as kids?
Are the rewards so rich,
they’re willing to “win” at any cost?
And you, neighbor, before you roar . . . RIGGED
to every passing semi, RV, antique classic,
don’t you realize, if you are right,
our entire American “democracy”
is a sham?
Of course you do.
Out of the many, there is no shazam,
no will of the governed,
no “voice of the people.”
No voice of you and me.
3
THE ELECTION IS RIGGED
And maybe, my neighbor down the street,
whom I don’t know, you are right—THE ELECTION
IS RIGGED, though maybe not
how you think.
Nobody is bribing the refs,
nor paying off rogue players in the stadium.
Long before the soft whistle
in the teeth of the first volunteer
opening the precinct door,
all across this wide continent
federal, state, and local elections
ARE being rigged—
by precise gerrymandering,
by particular ID cards,
by cascades of designated cash.
RIGGED, at the very least,
to the very best of their manipulative ability,
by our election-selecteds
and their precise, particular, dedicated minions.
You grieve me, neighbor, living on our street,
screaming at every passerby
THE ELECTION IS RIGGED,
not because you are wrong,
but because you may be right.
And if you are, in the stampede
after the shout of Fire! in our national theater,
we will be crushed, you and I together.
Llyn Clague is a poet based in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. His poems have been published widely, including in Ibbetson Street, Atlanta Review, Wisconsin Review, California Quarterly, Main Street Rag, New York Quarterly. His seventh book Hard-Edged and Childlike was published by Main Street Rag in September, 2014.