Almost Turned Away On Election Day

Almost Turned Away On Election Day
© Surazeus
2018 11 09

The old man with caramel-colored skin,
and curls gray as wire bristles on a brush,
stands in long line outside the red-brick church,
waiting to vote on our election day.
Bright sun shimmers in clear November sky
to bake hills of Georgia in vibrant heat,
but his head is cool under plaid fedora,
as he ignores sore feet in polished shoes.

Watching young people type on small smart phones
that glow soft blue in early evening dusk,
the old man grins amazed at how things change,
remembering when he fought for civil rights.
I sat at counters to order hamburgers
in restaurants segregated against blacks,
and marched across the bridge in Alabama
where police baptized us with water hoses.
I survived marching for the right to vote
and work for wages same as white men earn,
and my heart healed after shocking despair
when Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis.
After many years of fighting for rights
for equal opportunities in law
I voted for Barack Obama twice,
the first black President of our great nation.

Stepping to the table with confidence,
he shows his drivers license to the worker,
but he responds, "You cannot vote today,
because you are not in the database.
Your name on your card does not match the name
recorded on your birth certificate,
so your name was stricken from voting rolls,
or else you will be charged with voting fraud."

The old man with caramel-colored skin,
and curls gray as wire bristles on a brush,
stares surprised at the man with silver eyes,
then gazes down at his name on the card.
"Since I was born first year of World War Two,
I have voted every election year
since I picked Kennedy in Nineteen Sixty,
till I chose Hillary two years ago.
Not once in all these years since I could vote
has anyone ever said I could not vote,
for my name has always been registered
eligible to vote on the county rolls."

Before the old man turns away to leave,
the young woman standing nearby declares,
"It seems you are not registered to vote,
however, the law says you can still vote.
The secretary of state, who now runs
for governor, deleted from the rolls
thousands of people with the right to vote,
so he is cheating in attempt to win.
Request provisional ballot right now
so you can vote today with legal right,
then you can visit the office tomorrow
and prove you have the legal right to vote."

Turning back to the worker at the desk,
the old man asks for provisional ballot,
then signs his name and address on the paper,
and accepts small yellow card from pale hand.
Stepping to the large black voting machine,
the old man slips the card into the slot,
selects candidates he wants to run things,
then submits his selections with a smile.

Stepping outside into the evening light,
the old man stares at clouds over the town,
and wonders if his votes for candidates
will be counted or vanish in the wires.
Almost turned away on election day,
though I voted these past fifty-eight years,
I am shocked that I have to prove I am
true citizen of these United States.
The right to vote is sacred to my heart,
so I must still fight for my liberty
to defeat autocratic tyranny
and maintain our equal democracy.

The old man with caramel-colored skin,
and curls gray as wire bristles on a brush,
drives home through the streets of his southern town,
then sits in his back yard and drinks a beer.