I Dedicate…

Jan Seale

October 18, 2020

…my pristine clean and easy vote--

coming to mailbox in green election envelope,

returned in white ballot envelope,

inside yellow carrier envelope--  

to those on election day:

 a mother whose baby seems to gain weight

in her arms while she stands in the queue;

a man who has worked a day flagging cars 

now swaying to soothe his tired feet; 

a young woman blinking at sun in her eyes

while the wind entangles her hair;

a lettuce handler, first time voting,

who worries he’ll be late clocking in.

I dedicate my vote to an old woman shifting 

a purse heavy with unneeded credentials; 

to an old man bound in van wheelchair 

who awaits poll watcher, poll worker, assistant

advancing kindly with portable voting machine.

Jan Seale, the 2012 Texas Poet Laureate, writes poetry and
nonfiction from her home in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.  Her latest
book is A Lifetime of Words (Lamar University Literary Press) with
essays drawing on her experience as a writer and teacher.