It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m following the upcoming United States presidential election with great interest. I commented on the Republican candidate during the last election cycle, which thankfully he lost. That said, poetry is not my usual medium, so it was a bit of a surprise Saturday morning when this got stuck in my brain and insisted on being written.
The energy is good, the message is better:
we must save our democracy together.
Talk to your neighbor, talk to your friends,
let it not be how this government ends.
We will not go quietly into the night
while those men, mostly white, cancel our rights.
Forty-some years of these trickle-down tricks
have made the rich even richer and the middle class sick.
When the middle class struggles, the country does too.
Watch your officials, see what they do.
If they try to divide us with a message of hate -
stop and think, how does that really make America great?
Do they want you to vote or want you to hide?
Are you too different from them, so not on their side?
Or do they truly believe that each voice should matter?
I can’t choose the former, thus I must choose the latter.
Every person that chooses to call the United States “mine”
must now make a choice, they must draw that line.
If you value each person for their friendly face,
regardless of religion, gender, or race,
Harris and Walz are the choice you must make,
for your brother, your sister, for everyone’s sake.
This was followed by posting a recording of it to TikTok on Sunday.
Check your voter registration, check your early voting dates (where applicable), and research the candidates before our November 5th deadline. While this poem is specifically about the presidential race, your local races are equally, if not more, important.