Election 2020: America teeters
Margo Davis
October 29, 2020
as it always has, an aged couple
greeted with vacuous half-smiles that land
on the wall they are up against.
Masks! Back up, it’s six feet apart!
The weary two stick together
through thin and thinner, casting in unison.
They’ll not cancel each other out.
Why must they vote? It’s their right!
On lumbering mass transit
the two exchange a wink, turn to strangers,
asking, So have you voted yet?
The bus moans, I got the bailout blues!
They hazard five steep flights
as if to gather census data from diverse
cultures. On a landing she
pinches leaves off an anemic plant
before bundling someone else’s
tabby across her chest until it protests.
Her husband fills a saucer with
his rationed milk. Yep, they voted,
that’s what matters. Not this
deep tissue pain just out of reach, a fiery
itch that he keeps scratching
against door frames. Could it be eczema?
Wings tucked in for safekeeping?
His final roll call, must he register for that?
He’s been knifed in the back.
Poems by Margo Davis have recently appeared in Odes and Elegies: Eco-Poetry from the Texas Gulf Coast; Snapdragon, MockingHeart Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Cordella, International Contemporary Art Exhibition 2020 in Art Gallery Le Logge, Assisi; and in the TransCultural Exchange’s Hello World Project, 2020. Margo’s home base is Houston.
