(1)
My vote is a secondhand skirt
bold plaid shiny taffeta
just my size perfect!
in the back a working zipper
but then I see
the front is destroyed
violently blown apart
most of it missing
charred at the edges
At the polling station
I hold it up to the light
It will leave me exposed
It will have to do
(2)
My vote is upstairs
in someone else’s kitchen
I have to make it myself
It will be soup
I boil the potato
it falls in soapy water
I can fish it out rinse it
It was my vote
I have to eat it
Everyone else has made their vote here too
No one has cleaned up their mess
I feel sorry for the people who own this place
(3)
My vote is in an adjoining room
filled with treasures in dusty glass cases
Pewter plates tarnished pitchers
coins swords dolls in costume
arrowheads blankets spears
mugs & quills all jammed together
poorly lit I have to strain to see
Is this my country? A museum
with no curator but a hoarder
Every aisle filled no possible escape
(4)
My vote is this soup
I carry it in a heavy saucepan
with a long-handle
The soup is watery chopped beets
bits of carrot & onion
I must carry it down
the stairs but the stairs—
a wooden spiral
the saturated colors of a sunset
of a psychedelic album cover—
are broken & I can’t see
my way down
I’m trying to pick my way
through the splintered boards
will they support my weight?
how far is the drop down?
what’s there in the dark?
I grip the handle of the saucepan
afraid my vote will spill
(5)
I don’t know what my vote will be
It’s a hidden thing like a gift
wrapped in a small box
the kind of box
earrings come in
but covered with brown paper
& then it reveals itself—
small wet slimy climbing
out from its birth its baptism—
a bumblebee yellow & black
stripes furred with mucus
It staggers on the page
& I feel let down
This thing is nothing
a pathetic insect
hollow body easily crushed
It teeters Then I remember
it can sting
–
Mary Buchinger is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently e i n f ü h l u n g/in feeling (2018). She is president of the New England Poetry Club and professor of English and communication studies at MCPHS University in Boston.