My Little Voting Poem

The Blameless

 

I did not slay six hundred

thousand souls in fire and zeal

and ideology.  I did not

wage a war I could not win

and call it courtesy.  I did not

agree to separate the sinners

from the saints through smoke

and toil, for democracy and oil.

 

I do not have six hundred

thousand souls across the scale.

That weight belongs to other,

higher bred. I did not wage a war

I could not win—I turned my head.

 

The sand never clogged my lungs

or touched my face burned

with doubt and death.  The sirens didn’t

jolt me awake, alert and holding

my breath.  The shadows never haunted

me with promise of a spark.  The powder never

dirtied me from shots fired in the dark.

 

I was never called to duty,

asked to don my boots and arms.

I never had to kill, be killed,

lose hope.  I did not fight a war

I could not win—I did not vote.

 

*

I give permission for any person to reprint or distribute this poem in its entirity, unchanged, and bearing my name, for any reasonable purpose and with or without financial gain from said distribution or printing. 

 

Larina Warnock