Silence of the Lambs
On line with the lambs
For early voting
Saturday October 28th
We do not speak
Except for inanities
Politics is forbidden
While waiting to vote
As are more significant utterances
Silence is the default
Good manners
Discretion
No one screams profanities
No one mourns aloud
No one transgresses
(All transgressions
Having been accomplished)
A lovely young acquaintance
Her winning brood in tow
Told me a couple of weeks before
That we are in a battle
Of good against evil
I said I hoped we’d not be
On opposite sides of the barricades
Ah words
Good and evil gnaw at us
We are rendered feverish
By their infectious peal
In a delirium of lost meaning
Ironic that angelic people
With delicious babes
Know not what they do
How is one to know
In all this silence
The unspoken echoes
Of things learned long ago
…………………………………
The line stirs slithers forward
I too go forth for the millionth time
To experience the isolation of the ballot
Shoulder to shoulder with these silent souls
No one can tell the mad from the sane
The rabid from the prey
10/28/06
Copyright 2006 by Maurice Leiter
Posted with permission.
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