by David Feela
(with apologies to Archibald MacLeish)
A voter should be imperceptible and mute
as a foot in a boot.
Mum
as the chamber of an unholstered gun,
inaudible as a candidate caught lying
at a rally for the deaf and the dying—
A voter should be aware
Truth’s not there.
*
A voter should be firm and free
As the swell of a sea,
Pushing, as if changing a shoreline
Grain by shiny grain against time,
Pushing, as an eraser over errors,
Until the paper stands corrected or it tears—
A voter should be firm and free
As the swell of a sea.
*
A voter should be equal to the task,
Not rash.
For all the history of losing faith
An empty ballot and a polling place.
For hope
A persistent vine crawling toward the light—
A voter’s not just me
But we.
David Feela writes a monthly column for The Four Corners Free Press and for The Durango Telegraph. A poetry chapbook, Thought Experiments, won the Southwest Poet Series. The Home Atlas appeared in 2009. A Collection of his essays, How Delicate These Arches, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Unsolicited Press will release his new chapbook, Little Acres, in April 2019.
