a darker faced patriarch in power

voting day

the dreadful day

pushed me astray

a call to calm my comfort

a round of how are you? what are you doing?

oh hey, did you vote today?

I could not believe

she questioned my civic participation

unlike los politicos

I didn’t tell her what she wanted to hear

I don’t understand you

silence

even worse

i should have told her i’m reading malatesta instead

silence

oh no, not the claims of an another apathetic youth!

the world will surely end because of people like me

judgment from the sign wavering, name shouting, sticker wearing crowd

i bet my treason was clearly visible

oh but what did I care?

I’m just another apathetic youth

succumbed to being too cool for political games

the lecture was surely coming, i could sense it

like a flock of birds after a gun shot

like the ripples of a wave from a rock

a wave of the masses

for a football game or pop concert

it was like the lines to the polls

first, it was a guilt trip

need i remind her

shame provokes no remorse

you could throw stones at this point

but be careful where you waste your energy

i explained i didnt believe in it anymore

the talking heads

the thrones

the failure of their power

why make myself feel worse?

i seek empowerment not obedience

i said they all look the same anyways

it was like generic vs. major brand

OH NO.

she loves to play devil’s advocate

it continued on both ends

neither one really listening to the arguments of the other

the questioning of faith in democracy

the rants of u.s. imperialism

the reality of the third world we create

but this is serious!

I was starting to be accused of blasphemy

from the confusion of my statements came

you know what maribel?

huh…

i don’t buy it

buy what?

as though i was promoting a new magic weight loss pill

i dont buy all this anarchist social revolution bullshit

I just don’t.

silence

well that was an insult

the shit have hiteth the fan

words of blasphemy i thought

what could i say?

oh but you should buy this

oh but i should try to sell you that

sista, i’m not trying to sell you anything

this isn’t a commodity

it’s an understanding of the world

a beautiful beautiful world

it’s not her world

or the way she’d want to see it

she said she never buy it

to throw gasoline in the fire

i mumbled something about the abolishment of private property

then it was really over

we agreed to disagree, kinda

we agreed our daily dose of politics was over

we agreed we’d rather not fight

we agreed that someday this disagreement

would mean more than the end of a phone conversation.

—In response to the one day every two years citizens are obliged to participate.
Also, for the irony lovers- Did you know there are no black people in America?