This Is How I Voted Today - Fred LaMotte

[Larry Robinson]

This Is How I Voted Today


This is how I voted today. 
I went to the woods and dug a hole 
under fern in leaf rot and luminous fungi 

into which I pressed my mouth and screamed 
a long hot uncreated vowel containing 
the first and last letters of every alphabet.  
I signed my vote with my tears, 
it was ratified by planetary silence 
groans of Adam's first wife from far below  
heaved out of the groundlessness 
where she is gowned in seamless glistening mycellia. 

Only then did I realize what I'd voted for  
the abolition of Republicans and Democrats, 
 the downfall of spires and hierarchies,  
the dissolution of superpacs and 
$50,000 a plate dinner parties
in Hollywood and the Hamptons,  
the deconstruction of the Constitution into a single 
proto-Hebraic rune, 
inscribed on a cavern wall somewhere under 
the vast and indecipherable border 
between Mexico and Arizona. 

The overthrow of male and female hegemony,  
the annihilation of both capitalism and socialism, 
the eradication of black and white by a rainbow of tears, 
the renaissance of family farms and local small-business collectives 
spawning an exquisite tapestry of bio-regional economies where 
no mention is ever made of "government."  

Where politics evaporates into folk music story-telling
fermented cabbage useful tools 
and the gentle heroics of mere listening. 

I voted for the mule that Jesus rode into the city 
proclaiming forgiveness of all debts 
which is the same mule Laotzu rode out 
beyond the wall of China.  

Which is also the mule that Rumi sat backwards on 
stumbling Westward into exile  
gazing Eastward toward eternal loss--  
that mule I tell you will be president!  

I voted to compost and manure the floor of the Senate 
entangling every politician in a web of hemp moss
mushrooms and deer pellets.  
I voted to turn the dome of Congress all abuzz 
into a giant hummingbird feeder. 

I voted for the reclamation of all human skin 
with musky forests of golden fur. 

My vote was the sound of Yes in every tongue  
the co-whispering of all leaves  
the council of trees 
the un-clink of gold and emeralds returning to 
veins in stone  the echo of a primal Sigh 
that meant to sing the color green
but accidentally created the stars.

	- Fred LaMotte