I’ve read the front pages of five newspapers this morning
because I’m just that frustrated
because I need that like morning coffee

It occurs to me that perhaps
we ought to look at the election
another way

The side of evil (because there is a side of evil)
has relied on fraud, misinformation,
rigging elections
passing laws against early voters
making it harder to vote
calling and intimidating voters
PACS and out of control spending
preachers crying from the pulpits
owners intimidating their workers

that’s a lot of effort to defeat one man

and who does that one man have?
the educated
the critical thinkers
the ones who look at things long term not short

i think Margaret Cho said something after
the 2008 campaign, or was it the 2004
the red and the blue maps
being some sort of bread crumb tour of the usa
blue marks education
blue marks free to live and love
blue marks innovation

and red marks fear
and red marks the world as flat
and red marks churches
like spray painted graffiti
across the heart and mind

and there’s no room for green on the map
even though the hurricanes and the pipelines
and the frankenvegetables clearly call out
that this ain’t gonna go down nicely

It’s the short day
when the air is thin
and the spirit world is
closest and ready to whisper
purple bruised and disembodied
to those ready to listen

But back to the amazing

and the amazing is:

that at least we’ve come this far
that my kids ask ‘is this organic?’
before they put it into their mouths.
that my students think racism, sexism and homophobia
are weird outdated concepts that they can’t understand
why anyone would feel that way in the first place
like it’s so much removed from them.

as it should be.

And if once again
hysterical preachers
and oil company executives
win because we are too stupid
too gullible well then so be it

I will live in my America
where people are free to be themselves
where women are people
where children are wanted
where jobs are available
and the air is clean
and student loans are forgiven

it might only exist in my head
or it might only exist in California
but I’ll stay in my America
and you red state siblings
can stay in the hell you’ve created
and in another four years
we’ll ignore real issues

and we’ll send out the fanatical street preachers
into our toxic wasteland
some of the oil execs will have died
some will still be here
and we’ll try this again.