Early Voting
Early voting
joking Black
senior election
volunteers, no
armed camo-gear
poll – watchers.
Principal, before
first day
school year:
“If you
pray, pray;
if you
meditate, meditate;
if you
hope, hope.”
Sunday morning
stream survey,
Ann nets,
examines tiny
macro – invertebrates:
hellgrammites. crayfish,
mayflies, damselflies,
cranefly larvae
and flatworm
planaria that
self – regenerate.
Air of
diminishing arthropods.
Canvasser: “Is . . . ”
(name on
clipboard) “home?”
Home – owner:
“Get off
my lawn.”
Sun and
Sky: “Walk
joyfully, reminding
voters to
vote.” Lawn:
“Don’t tread
on me.”
Other homeowner,
calling uncles
aunts, cousins
friends of
friends, Georgia:
“We’re on
the Raphael
Train.” Stream:
“If you
regenerate, regenerate.”
Sunday morning
stream survey.
.
Reading Frenzy
Daughter, two,
pulls every
picture book
off library
shelf, page
by page
looking. Son,
fourteen, rides
with me
long car
trip reading
500 page
novel, highway
flashing cinematic
backdrop. Teenage
girls Texas
form book
club read
banned books,
smash roadblock.
Two-year-old daughter,
now older,
is library
cataloguer, reading
Sister Outsider
quiet car
commuter train.
Listening, listening.
Quiet car
commuter train,
commuter train
quiet car.
Reading, reading,
reading, alphabet.
Lovely buzz
of alphabet.
© Chris Mason
Chris Mason is a Baltimore poet and songwriter. He is a member of two musical groups, The Tinklers, and Old Songs (who translate and set Archaic Greek poetry to music). His poetry books include Something Something Morning (Blabbermouth Books, Baltimore, 2020), Hum Who Hiccup (Narrowhouse, Baltimore, 2011), and Poems of a Doggy (pod books, Baltimore, 1977).
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