Voting in a Local Tax Election

Show your driver’s license, sign your name, and

You are guided into the voting machine booth.

Push the buttons next to the propositions,

Press the one marked “Cast Vote,” and

It’s done. 

Your civic privilege-duty fulfilled.

Tonight the unofficial results will be announced:

Propositions adopted with light turnout. 

Monday technicians and clerks

Will perform their autopsy of the civic remains, and

Report to newspaper and Internet:

Precinct, votes for, votes against, totals.

Today the body politic’s pulse is weak,

Barely registering, barely showing signs of life.

Tomorrow’s sun will rise, and

Many will continue to enjoy

The quiet civic life, renewed.

---October 19, 2013