{*Did you know you can write on Elephant? Here’s how—big changes: How to Write & Make Money or at least Be of Benefit on Elephant. ~ Waylon}
For me, elections are hard.
Well, to be fair, all of life is not easy, is it? And my words come out in poems.
~
today i am hollow and i am sad
it’s sunday morning
october end twenty twenty four
one week before the election that may end all
elections in our country
so says one of the possible electables
everything about elections shuts me down these days
though i remember being 18 and excited
for the opportunity to cast
my ballot
a hard fought right as a woman
so many hard fought rights as a woman
and now i’m watching them get tossed
and i just watch
my hand
arthritic now
my voice screams but i’m somehow silent
surrounded by men who remind me
“no one asked you”
and i guess it’s my job to remind them
i don’t care (or rather, that i really really do)
and that’s the problem it seems.
the disconnect.
the heartbreak and the reason for all
of my crying
“what cannot be said will be wept”
said sappho
and i’ve read nothing more true
my soul has just been weeping now for years at what it knows and can’t speak
won’t speak
won’t hear
elections bring out the worst in us
the great divide
we used to be able to have our own opinions
and still love
to have civil discourse and try to genuinely understand where our hearts were
because they’re all in the same
place
(our chests, our homes)
and we all have to live here
together
our political signs tainting god’s autumn landscape
tearing us down
gas prices and greed (though we can’t seem to agree on just whose)
so we just call one another names
and sneer
cast your vote on election day folks
then bow your heads in prayer
place awareness on your breath as you observe silently in meditation
you’re going to need to keep breathing through it
It could be a long four years
and on and on
This Kali Yuga
find your solace and your sangha
hold and learn to let go
in and out and love and remember compassion
serve god and not another
everyone falls
everyone falls
everyone falls
just lift your head
and look for the sun
even behind clouds it’s going to be there.
~
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