Reluctance

Jean Hackett

October 14, 2020

At 19 with furrowed brow, lips firmly set

in a do not cross me line, you announce

you’re not going to vote.

Insist politics causes nothing

but arguments, nasty fights. 

I won’t disagree.

I’ve seen you

steer conversations away from guns

when friends wax poetic about the gory glory

of blowing away axis deer, songbirds and squirrels

with AK47’s.

Hugged you

when you gave up on your crush who tried to drag

your agnostic ass to a religious retreat

because she couldn’t date someone

who wasn’t right with God. 

Joined you

to slither away from Grandma’s table on Thanksgiving

as Uncle Q-Anon blasted your environmentalist brother

with chem trial diatribes about climate change,

afraid he’d shove another family member

head-first into the breakfast room table,

like he did your dad two Christmases ago over abortion.

Politics haven’t been kind to you,

but lots of folks get treated worse.

There’s your middle school girlfriend,

the pretty one with sea green eyes,

pregnant in 11th grade

since the State of Texas proclaimed

birth control for 16 year-olds a sin.

The boy a couple grades ahead of you

who quit community college

after commuting 1 ½ hours each day

each way by bus to campus,

because education and public transit

aren’t American priorities.

The wild child, once part of your crowd,

who quit drugs, got a GED,

but now struggles with bipolar disorder,

unable afford insurance or medication

in a Land of Plenty where health care isn’t a right.

I know you’re disgusted by squawks and squalls, dog whistles

the powerful promote as music to certain ears,

how they raise the volume of rage and conflict 

with every twist of the dial. I know

you want to opt out, walk away.

But citizenship isn’t a party you can leave

if you don’t like the DJ’s play list.

Choose to drown out the cacophony

by joining others in harmonious song.

Promote hope and equity.

Vote! 

Jean Hackett is a poet, education, and naturalist who lives and writes in San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country.  Her most recent work has appeared in journal Voices de la Luna, the ‘zine Words for Birds, the collection of vulture poetry Purifying Wind, the collections of coronavirus poetry No Season for Silence, Tejascovido, and The Langdon Review.  In addition, she’s had poems appear in in the San Antonio Express News/ Houston Chronicle, ArtsAliveSA, and on San Antonio’s VIA buses as part of National Poetry month in 2020.