{*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.

~