new and unedited, “Voting Virgin” (written 6/12/08)
The Voting Virgin
I explained again how to fill out the registration form,
Skeptical, I ask, are you really old enough to vote?
Yes, I was born in 1980.
Shit, I have to call my sister.
Don’t worry you say, she was white, you are in San Diego
her vote will count. 1980, huh?
Such youth reminds us both
simultaneously, that we are aging.
We laugh because we have to.
Our chuckles decrescendo in telephonic harmony.
In this same song we once came to terms with your illness,
In every conversation we improvise according to the chords
of the distance between us
and the preciousness of our sisterhood.
Yet our daily dose of survival humor is rooted
only in the context of our being young,
Now, we each perceive the other’s breath
silently attempt to reserve for a little longer
the right to gossip like teenagers daily on the phone.
1980, huh?
We hang-up to listen to a flower sermon
in the stale heat of another quickly passing day.
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