THE ART OF THE VOTE
by Barry Casselman
Voting is always a risk in time.
In the amalgam of persons who live near each other,
and under a flag with each other,
it is the sole universal act
which defines their society together,
an act which is a rare but periodic moment
when something is actually decided.
Everything their politicians do is provisional,
but what voters do is permanent briefly in time.
Once made, a vote cannot be taken back.
Of those who can vote, there is no true alternative
to making a choice, of making a decision,
of causing no consequence from whatever they do.
Those who decide not to cast their ballot,
cast their ballot anyway, choosing in advance
whomever collects the most votes actually counted.
Voting is the purest emotion of freedom,
the least guaranty of an outcome,
the most certain guaranty of liberty,
the riskiest of all shared risks,
the legal signature of our species,
a testimony in the unimaginably long program
now playing in the uncountable and moving particles
of this brief world we must live in.
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Copyright (c) 2016 by Barry Casselman. All rights reserved.
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